This 19th century oil painting titled The Holy Family is of Italian origins but whose artist is unknown. It was painted on a cotton-based canvas and as cotton itself is highly flammable, its miraculous survival in the intense fire has baffled everyone. Many would say it was a miracle. The painting survived intact and needed no more than a clean.

The 18th century marble surround and alter originally came from a Dominican Convent in Rome. Fortunately, these also survived the fire and have been restored.

St Mel’s of Longford town is the cathedral church for the diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise. Ambitious plans for a fine church building in Longford began to take form after the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 and became a reality when sufficient funds had been collected. Construction began in 1840 with the laying of the foundation stone which was taken from the original cathedral of St. Mel at Ardagh, only a few miles from Longford. The main body of the new cathedral was completed in 1856 to a neo-classical design by the architect Joseph Benjamin Keane, work having been delayed during the period of the Great Famine (1846 and recommenced 1853). After Joseph’s death in 1849, work was continued after by his assistant John Bourke (d.1871) who was also responsible for the belfry tower completed in 1860, but with major alterations to its original design. The neo-classical portico was designed by George Coppinger Ashlin (1837-1921) and completed in 1889 with its pediment and sculpted tympanum depicting the enthronement of St. Mel as Bishop of Ardagh along with three statues above the pediment. By this time, the cathedral building has taken on its definitive form with no further major alterations until its refurbishment after the devastating fire of 2009.

On 25th December 2009, the entire building was gutted by a fire which accidently started within the boiler chimney flue at the rear and quickly spread. The alarm was raised just after 5am but fire-fighting attempts were hampered by frozen pipes as the country was in the grip of one of its worst and prolonged periods of freezing temperatures for decades. By daylight, the entire building had been reduced to a burnt-out shell with the loss of all its furnishing, fittings and diocesan museum. The museum contained many priceless artefacts that included the Crozier of Saint Mel and the book-shrine of St. Caillin (1536), the latter damaged beyond restoration but it may be possible to conserve some of the remnants. The 28 supporting columns were also damaged beyond repair and had to replaced anew. Very little was recoverable that survived the worst of the 1,000 deg.C fire and even these suffered some degree of fire damage such as The Bell of Fenagh which is undergoing conservation treatment at the National Museum of Ireland and the original baptismal font with its brass fittings and surrounding mosaic floor. But the most puzzling of all and described by many as nothing short of a miracle was the survival of the Holy Family painting in the northern transept and the undamaged Eucharistic Host still inside the fire damaged tabernacle. The Holy Family oil painting on a cotton-based canvas should have readily gone up in flames due to its highly combustible materials but somehow survived relatively unscathed despite the intense fire around it. This painting was of Italian origins by an unknown artist and is now back on display requiring little more than a cleaning!

After five years of work by many expert disciplines using traditional methods, the cathedral building has been totally refurbished and which included quarried blue-limestone for 28 columns with hand-carved capitals that support the roof. Both Harry Clarke Studio windows were salvaged from the transepts and restored to their former glory by Abbey Stained Glass Ltd of Dublin, a company with much experience in the restoration of stained glass windows. Other replacements such as the wooden pews, alter, stained glass, Stations of the Cross tablets, pipe-organ, fixtures and fitting were all made in a modern style to the best materials and craftsmanship available. It is also planned to open a diocesan museum in the cathedral’s new crypts. The total cost of refurbishment and fitting out came to around €30 million, funded mostly from the insurance cover and after five years of hard work the cathedral was reopened for services at Christmas 2014.

Photos taken Thursday 22nd January 2015.

References:

www.facebook.com/StMelsRestoration (St Mel’s Cathedral restoration – Facebook page).

www.rte.ie/news/special-reports/2014/1215/667007-longford... (RTE News article about TV program The Longford Phoenix).

www.longfordtourism.ie/event/st-mels-cathedral-rise-from-...

irishcatholic.ie/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/... (Sculptor Ken Thompson working on one of his Stations of the Cross panels).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mel%27s_cathedral,_Longford

l7.alamy.com/zooms/5e9904767cdb4317b39e15ee189488c3/shrin... (Image of St. Caillin book shrine created in 1536 before it was damaged beyond repair in the 2009 fire at St. Mel’s cathedral).

www.alamy.com/stock-photo-st-mels-crozier-longford-cathed... (Image of the 10th century St. Mel’s Crozier and sadly, completely destroyed in the cathedral fire of 2009).

Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History reconstruct hominids to provide a glimpse of our ancestors. Here, four stages in the reconstruction of Sima 5, from a site called the "Pit of the Bones" in the Sierra de Atapuerca in Northern Spain, highlight the intricate steps of the process.

The Anne and Bernard Spitzer Hall of Human Origins pairs fossils with DNA research to present the remarkable history of human evolution. The hall covers millions of years of human history, from early ancestors who lived more than six million years ago to modern Homo sapiens, who evolved 200,000 to 150,000 years ago.

Borító képek

M50 Goldwing

Gainesville, Florida, USA.

Our first day around the Jacksonville area ... we headed over to Gainesville where we visited the amazing Museum of Natural History. Not just any museum ... the displays are brilliantly done, and bring everything to life.

There is also a Butterfly Garden there.

Idea is a genus of butterflies known as tree nymphs or paper butterflies. The member species are concentrated around South-East Asia.

Idea leuconoe, also known as the paper kite butterfly, rice paper butterfly, large tree nymph, is a butterfly known especially for its presence in butterfly houses and live butterfly expositions. It has a wingspan of 12 to 14 cm. The paper kite is of Southeast Asian origin, but can also be found in Southern Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands.

Larvae feed on Parsonsia species, Tylophora hispida, Parsonsia helicandra, Parsonsia spiralis, and Cynanchum formosanum so both the butterfly and larvae are poisonous.

The paper kite butterfly's forewings and hindwings are translucent silvery white with black spots, similar to the Idea lynceus.

There are several subspecies.

I have been through the village many times, but not found the church ope, but after driving by recently, I saw the west porch door open, so found a place to park nearby.

The church stands on high ground over the village's famous ford, and beside what was once the high road, but is still busy.

The porch is underneath the tower on the west end of the church, and upon entering the building is filled with light. The pews have been replaced by modern seating, an there is a fairly new alter, but the apse is clean and light.

A couple were visiting from up north, and were delighted to have met another visitor, especially one who has visited close to 350 Kentish churches.

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Sitting on high ground above the famous ford, this is a light and well cared for church. Saxon in origin, but with a character now of the thirteenth century, it is currently (2005) being reordered to make it more adaptable. Already the north aisle is not part of the church but proposals to remove pews and change the layout will result in an even more flexible space. The finest part of the church is the south transept - with its very tall lancet windows and modern altar.

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Eynsford

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EYNSFORD.

SOUTHWARD from Farningham lies Eynsford, sometimes written Aynsford, so named from a noted ford here over the river Darent.

THIS PARISH extends about four miles from east to west, and about three miles from north to south; on the north side it reaches almost up to the village of Farningham, near to which stood the antient mansion of Sibell's; and towards the west, over the hills, by Wested-farm and the obscure and little known hamlet of Crockenhill, both within its bounds, among a quantity of woodlands. The soil is in general chalky, except towards the west, where there is some strong heavy land. The village of Eynsford, through the eastern part of which the high road leads from Dartford through Farningham, and hence towards Sevenoke, is situated near the south-west bounds of the parish, in the valley on the banks of the Darent; over it there is a bridge here, repaired at the public charge of the county. At the north end of the village, near the river, are the remains of Eynsford castle, (fn. 1) and at the south end of it the church; beyond which this parish extends southward, on the chalk hills, a mile and an half; where, near the boundaries of it, is Afton lodge.

THIS PLACE was given to Christ church, in. Canterbury, in the time of archbishop Dunstan, who came to the see in 950, by a certain rich man, named Ælphege; after whose death one Leossune, who had married the widow of Eadric, Elphege's nephew, retained this land as his own, notwithstanding this devise of it. Upon which the trial of it was appointed at Ærhede, before Uulsi, the priest seir-man, or judge of the county, in presence of archbishop Dunstan, the parties themselves, the bishops of London and Rochester, and a multitude of lay people; and there, in the presence of the whole assembly, the archbishop taking the crossin his hand, made his oath upon the book of the ecclesiastical laws to the scir-man, who then took it to the king's use, as Leossune himself refused to receive it, that the right use of these lands was to Christ church; and as a farther confirmation of it to future times, it had the ratification of a thousand of the choicest men out of Suthex, Westsex, Middlesex, and Eastsex, who took their oaths also on the cross to the truth of it after him. (fn. 2)

At the time of taking the general survey of Domesday, Eynesford was held of the archbishop of Canterbury, by knight's service, and accordingly it is thus entered, under the general title of Terra Militum Archiepi, in that record.

Ralph Fitz Unspac holds Ensford of the archbishop. It was taxed at six suling. The arable land is. In demesne there are five carucates and 29 villeins, with nine borders, having 15 carucates. There are 2 churches and nine servants, and two mills of 43 shillings, and 29 acres of meadow; wood for the pannage of 20 hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth 16 pound, and now it is worth 20 pounds.—Of this manor Richard de Tonebridge holds as much wood as 20 bogs may go out from, and one mill of five shillings, and one fishery in this lowy.

In the reign of king Henry II. a family of the name of Eynsford was in the possession of this place, one of whom. William de Eynesford, was sheriff of London in that reign. (fn. 3) They bore for their arms, A fretty ermine, which coat is carved on the roof of the cloisters, at Canterbury. William de Eynesford, whether the same as above mentioned does not appear, held the MANOR and CASTLE of Eynsford of the archbishop, at which time archbishop Becket, having given the church of Eynsford to one Laurence, William de Eynesford dispossessed him of it, for which he was excommunicated by the archbishop, which offended the king exceedingly; (fn. 4) another of the same name possessed this manor and castle in the 12th and 13th years of king John. (fn. 5) In the reign of king Edward I. this estate was become the property of the family of Criol, in the 21st year of which, as appears by the Tower records, John de Criol and Ralph de Sandwich claimed the privileges of a manor here; Nicholas de Criol, a descendant of this John, died possessed of it, anno 3 king Richard II. (fn. 6) after which it passed by sale to the Zouches, of Harringworth. William Zouche died possessed of it in the 5th year of that reign, and left three sons, Sir William le Zouche of Braunfield, Edmund. and Thomas; which last and this castle and manor, of which he was possessed at his death, anno 6 king Henry IV. (fn. 7) After which it passed into the name of Chaworth; and Elizabeth, wife of William Chaworth, was found to die possessed of it in the 17th year of king Henry VII. Soon after which, it was conveyed by sale to Sir Percival Hart, of the body of Henry VIII. His son, Sir George Hart, died anno 22 queen Elizabeth possessed of this castle and manor, with the mill, called Garsmill, holding them of the king, as of his manor of Otford, by knights service; (fn. 8) since which they have descended in the same manner that Lullingstone has, to Sir John Dixon Dyke, bart. the present possessor of them.

There are large ruins still remaining of Eynsford castle. The walls, which are built of squared flint, are near four feet thick, being entire for near forty feet in height. The circuit of these walls are of a very irregular form, and contain about three quarters of an acre of ground, in the middle of them is a strong keep or dungeon. It stands at a small distance eastward from the river Darent, between which and the castle, as well as for the same space about it, there is much rubbish and foundations of buildings, and there are remains of a broad moat round it, now quite dry.

Many lands in Eynsford are held of this manor by annual quit rents. A constable is chosen at the court leet, held for it, for the liberty of Eynsford, which extends over the parish of Eynsford, and great part of the south side of Farningham-street.

SOUTH-COURT is a manor here, which was antiently part of the estate of the family of Eynesford, already mentioned, and was formerly parcel of Eynsford-castle. John de St. Clere possessed this manor in the 20th year of king Edward III. at which time he paid aid for it. In the reign of king Henry VII. it was come into the name of Dinham; and John Dinham died possessed of the manor of South-court, with its appurtenances, in Eynsford, which he held of the archibshop, as of his manor of Otford, by knights service, in the 17th of king Henry VIII. (fn. 9) From Dinham it passed by sale to Sir Thomas Wyatt of Allington-castle, from which family it was sold to Hart; and Sir John Hart, son and heir of Sir Percival Hart, knight of the body to king Henry VIII. (fn. 10) died possessed of it in the 22d year of queen Elizabeth, holding it of the queen, as of her manor of Otford, by knight service.

Since this unity of possession, the style of these manors has been, the castle and manor of Eynsford cum Southcourt; by which title they have descended, in the same manor as Lullingstone, to Sir John Dixon Dyke, bart. the present possessor of them.

The MANOR of ORKESDEN, the mansion of which is now called, by corruption, Aston-LODGE, was antiently possessed by a family, who took their surname from their residence here. William de Orkesden, in the 12th and 13th years of king John's reign held half a knight's see in Eynsford, by knight's service of the archbishop. He was one of the Recognitores Magna Assise, or justices of the Great Assize. (fn. 11)

In the reign of king Edward III. Reginald de Cobham was become possessed of this manor; in the 14th year of which he obtained a charter of free warren in all the demesne lands within his lordship of Orkesdenne; and in the next year he obtained licence to castellate his house here. He was son of Reginald de Cobham, who was son of John de Cobham of Cobham, by his second wife, Joane, daughter of Hugh de Nevill. (fn. 12)

This Reginald de Cobham was a great warrior; and in the 18th year of king Edward III. was constituted admiral of the king's fleet, from the Thames mouth westward. In the 20th of king Edward III. he paid aid for one quarter of a see in Orkesden, which he held of William de Eynesford, as of his manor of Eynsford. He died of the pestilence in the 35th year of that reign possessed of this manor, leaving Regihald his son and heir, and Joane his wife, daughter of Sir Maurice de Berkeley surviving, who possessed this manor at her death, anno 43 king Edward III. (fn. 13) Her son, Reginald, was lord of Sterborough, castle, in Surry, from whence this branch of the Cobhams was henceforward called, Cobhams of Sterborough-castle. (fn. 14)

His grandson, Sir Thomas Cobham, left a sole daughter and heir, Anne, who carried this manor in marriage to Sir Edward Borough, who survived him, and died possessed of it in the 20th year of king Henry VIII. then holding it of the lord Zouche, as of his manor of Eynsford, by knights service. (fn. 15)

Thomas, their son and heir, was summoned to parliament, as lord borough, anno 21 Henry VIII. He left Thomas his son and heir, who bequeathed this manor of Orkesden to his youngest son, Sir William Borough; and he, in the beginning of queen Elizabeth's reign, passed it away by sale to Francis Sandbache, esq. who sold it to John Lennard, esq. custos brevium of the court of common-pleas, who purchased it for his second son, Samuel Lennard, who was afterwards knighted, and was of West Wickham, in this county. On his death, in 1618, he was succeeded here by his son, Sir Stephen Lennard, who was created a baronet in 1642; he sold it to Richard Duke, esq. from whom it passed to Nathaniel Tench, esq. who died in 1710, and was buried at Low Leyton, in Essex. His only surviving son, Fither Tench, was created a baronet in 1715. (fn. 16) and died possessed of Orkesden manor in 1736; soon after which it was conveyed by sale to Percival Hart. esq. of Lullingstone, whose grandson, Sir John Dixon Dyke, bart. is the present owner of it.

Many lands in Eynsford, Lullingstone, and Sevenoke, are held of this manor by small annual quit rents.

On the western side of this parish, next to St. Mary Cray, lies the HAMLET of CROCKENHILL, which, as appears by a writ, Ad quod damnum, brought against the prioress of Dartford, in the 11th year of king Edward IV. was in the possession of that prioress and convent; with whom it staid till their suppression, in the reign of king Henry VIII. when their lands and revenues were surrendered into the king's hands; all which were confirmed to him and his successors by the general words of the act of the 31st of his reign, the year after which the king granted to Percival Hart, esq. among other premises, the manor of Crekenhill, alias Crokenhill, with its appurtenances, to hold of him in capite by knights service. (fn. 17) His son, Sir George Hart, of Lullingstone, died possessed of it, being then stiled Crockenhill, alias Court-hawe, in the 22d year of queen Elizabeth, holding it by the above tenure. Since which it has descended, in the same manner as the rest of his estates in this parish, to Sir John Dixon Dyke, bart. the present possessor of it.

This manor pays a yearly fee-farm rent to the crown of eleven shillings and five-pence.

LITTLE-MOTE and PETHAM-COURT are two manors, situated at the two opposite sides of this parish; the former being at the north east corner of it, near Farningham; and the latter at the north-west corner of it, near adjoining to Crokenhill and St. Mary Cray. These manors were, for many generations, part of the possessions of the family of Sibell, who resided at a mansion, called after them Sibell's, situated in Little or Lower Mote, and bore for their arms, Argent, a tiger gules, viewing himself in a glass or mirror, azure. Their estate here was much increased in the reign of king Henry VIII. by one of them marrying the female heir of Cowdale. These Cowdales bore for their arms, Argent, a chevron gules between three cows heads caboshed sable; which coat, both impaled and quartured with Sybill, Philipott says was remaining in the mansion here, both in painted glass and carved work, in his time. (fn. 18)

One of this family, John Sibell, died in the 17th year of queen Elizabeth, possessed of these estates, and also of the demesne lands of the manor of Hiltes bury; all which were held of the manor of Eynsford. He left an only daughter and heir, Elizabeth, and Jane his wife surviving, who held these estates for her life, and afterwards married Francis Hart, esq.

Elizabeth Sibell, the daughter, in the 24th year of queen Elizabeth, married Robert Bosevile, esq. afterwards knighted, the younger brother of Henry Bosevile of Bradborne, and son of Ralph Bosevile, of that place, clerk of the court of wards; and he, on her mother's death, became, in her right, possessed of Sibell's, with the manors of Littlemote and Petham. His descendant, Sir Thomas Bosevile, was of Littlemote, and had been a colonel in the king's army, and knighted by king Charles I. at Durham, in May 1642. He died the next year, and was buried in St. Mary's church, Oxford. (fn. 19) By Sarah, his wife, who afterwards married Col. Richard Crimes, he had a son, Thomas, who possessed these manors and Sibell's on his father's death. He married Elizabeth, only daughter of Sir Francis Wyat, of Boxleyabbey, and died in 1660, leaving an only daughter and heir, Margaretta, who carried the manor of Petham-court in marriage to Sir Robert Marsham, bart. of Bushey-hall, in Hertfordshire; and his great grand son, the Right Hon. Charles Marsham, lord Romney, is the present possessor of it.

But the manor of Littlemote, with Sibell's, became the property of Sir Henry Bosevile, who died in 1702, (fn. 20) without issue, and devised this manor and estate to his kinsman, Robert Bosevile, esq. of Staffordshire, whose family was originally of Ardesley, in Yorkshire, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, a younger branch of them settled in Kent, at Bradborne, in Sevenoke, and here at Eynsford; and a younger branch of these again in Staffordshire; they bore for their arms, Argent, a fess lozengy gules, in chief three bears heads erased sable.

His son of the same name, in the year 1755, sold it, in several parcels, to different persons, since which it has been of no consequence worth mentioning, and the old mansion of Sibell's has been pulled down some years ago, and two tenements have been erected on the scite of it.

Charities.

PERCIVAL HART, esq. gave by will, for the benefit of the poor, an annuity out of lands, vested in Sir John Dyke, bart. and of the annual produce of 2l.

AN UNKNOWN PERSON gave for the like use, a house, let by the parish to Philip Weller, and of the annual value of 4l.

SIR ANTHONY ROPER and . . . . . . . . HATCLIFF, esq. (as is supposed) gave for the benefit of the same, lands and houses in Greenwich, the rents to be divided, to the parish of Farningham threefifths, to Horton Kirkby one-fifth, and to this parish of Eynsford one-fifth, the annual produce being to this parish, on an average, 7l.

EYNSFORD is in the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION OF THE diocese of Rochester, and being a peculiar of the archbishop, it is as such in the deanry of Shoreham. The church, which is dedicated to St. Martin, is situated at the south-east end of the village.

It seems from the form of it to be one of our early Norman structures, and coeval with the castle. It is built in the form of a cross, with two large wings or side chancels; that on the south side belonged to the Sibell's, and afterwards to the Bosevile's, many of whom lie buried in it, several of whose gravestones and inscriptions are now so covered with fifth and rubbish that they are illegible; and the place itself, through continued neglect, is hastening to a total ruin. The north chancel is kept in good repair, and is filled with pews and a neat vestry room. In this chancel, according to Weever, was a stone, on which was engraved, in wondrous antique characters, Ici gis. la famme de la Roberg de Eckisford, perhaps it may have been so spelt for Einesford, or one of his mistakes for it, and if so, this chancel might belong to the Eynesfords, lords of this manor and castle; the stone is now hid by the wooden flooring over it. At the west end of the church is a spire steeple, underneath which is a curious circular door way of Saxon or very early Norman architecture. (fn. 21)

Among other monuments and inscriptions in this church, in the chancel, a gravestone, arms, a lion passant guardant, in chief three stirrups, for George Gifford, esq. obt. 1704, æt. 85; another for Thomas Gifford, esq. obt. 1705, æt. 59. In the chancel, on the south side of the church, a gravestone for lady Sarah Bosevile, wife of Col. Richard Crimes, obt. 1660; another for Tho. Bosevile, esq. of Littlemote, in Eynsford, only son of Sir Thomas Bosevile; he married Elizabeth, only daughter of Sir Francis Wiat of Boxley-abbey, by whom he left Margaretta, his sole daughter and heir; obt. 1660; another, arms, five lozenges in fess, in chief three bears heads erased, impaling two bends engrailed, and a canton, for Sir Henry Bosevile, of Littlemote, and dame Mary his wife; she died 1693, he died 1702. On the south wall, a monument with the above arms, for Mrs. Margaret Bosevile, only daughter and heir of Sir Henry Bosevile, of Littlemote, ob. 1682, æt. 26. (fn. 22)

William de Eynesford, lord of this parish, gave the church of Eynsford to the monks o Christ-church, in Canterbury, when he became a monk there; which was confirmed by William de Enysford, his grandson. (fn. 23) Archbishop Richard, in the reign of king Henry II. appropriated this church to the almonry of Christ church. (fn. 24) In the time of Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, there was a dispute, whether the church of Farningham was a chapel to the church of Eynsford or not ?

In consequence of which, the archbishop, by his decree, made with the consent of all parties in 1225, ordained, that the rector of Eynsford and his successors, should possess entirely the whole church of Eynsford, with all its tythes, as well great as small, houses, lands, gardens, and all other things belonging to it, which the rector of it was wont to have before; and that the almoner of Christ-church, and not the monks, should possess, to the use of the almonry, the chapel of Farningham, with its appurtenauces, &c. belonging to it, as is therein mentioned; and that the rector of this church of Eynsford should, on a vacancy, present to the vicarage of this church; and that further than this, neither should intermeddle, or claim a right in the above premisess. (fn. 25)

Thus this rectory became a fine cure, the parson of this church from that time having presented to the vicarage, the incumbent of which has had the cure of souls, in which situation the rectory still remains, being esteemed as a donative of the patronage of the archbishop of Canterbury.

In the 15th year of king Edward I. this church was valued at thirty marcs. (fn. 26) In 1575, Henry Withers, clerk, parson of the parish church and benefice of Eynsford, leased this rectory to Thomas Dunmoll, yeoman, at 12l. 6s. 8d. per annum. In 1633, John Gifford, D. D. rector, let the same to Thomas Gifford, his son, at forty pounds per annum rent.

By virtue of the commission of enquiry into the value of church livings, in 1650, issuing out of chancery, it was returned, that Eynsford was a donative, with a house, and one hundred acres of glebe, and the great tythes, worth altogether one hundred and ten pounds per annum, then in the possession of George Gifford, esq. that the vicarage had a house, but no glebe land, and was worth thirty-five pounds per annum, one master Heriot enjoying it, and preaching there. (fn. 27)

Francis Porter, rector in 1674, let to George Gifford, esq. of Pennis, this rectory, or parsonage of forty pounds per annum, and of twenty pounds to the vicar, Edward Tilson, which last sum is mentioned to be an augmentation made in pursuance of the king's letters recommendatory, which lease was confirmed in 1707, in pursuance of like letters of queen Anne.

¶George Gifford, esq. of Pennis, continued lessee till his death, in 1704, when his interest in it devolved to his son, Thomas Gifford, who died the next year, and left three daughters and coheirs, viz. Margaret, married to Thomas Petley; Mary to John Selby, and Jane to Finch Umsrey; this parsonage being let by them at one hundred and forty-five pounds per annum.

The interest of this lease passed by sale from them to Percival Hart, esq. of Lullingstone, whose grandson, Sir John Dixon Dyke, bart. a few years ago, suffered the lease to expire.

The rectory of Eynsford is valued in the king's books at 12l. 16s. 8d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 5s. 8d. the vicarage at twelve pounds, and the tenths at 1l. 4s. (fn. 28)

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol2/pp527-539

I'm pretty sure those little hand mirrors started it all......

Model: Jessica Manuel

HMUA: Jessica Manuel

Outfit: Connie Chung & Jessica Manuel

Location: Union Station Depot

Top experts convey their astronomical knowledge to novices, intermediate students and advanced practitioners, and elaborate on what humankind now knows about the universe. Jerry T. Bonell (US) of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center explain the “hot universe” that is brimming with high-energy insights. Scientists of the European Southern Observatory in Chile, on the other hand, introduce us to the “cold universe”. The visible portion of the cosmos is explained by Dietmar Hager (AT), an astrophotographer who’s certainly the right man for this job.

credit: rubra

1st Special Commando Regiment in Lubliniec

The origin of the unit dates back to 1957, when the reconnaissance company, based in the barracks of 16th Assault Squadron, was founded in Krakow. Over the years, the unit changed its location (Dziwnów on Wolin Island) and the nature of organization (the company was transformed to the 1st Assault Battalion). In 1986, it was moved to Lubliniec in Upper Silesia. On 8 October, 1993 a Chief of General Headquarters of Polish Army issued a decree on the formation of a new unit: 1st Special Regiment. The unit reached operational readiness in 1994 and on 23rd November, 1995 the President, at the request of Minister of National Defense, has granted the new unit a banner.

The unit is a continuation of tradition of the following formations:

•1st Polish independent Special Battalion

•National Army Battalion PARASOL

•Independent Company COMMANDO

In addition, being a part of the Regiment, Noncommissioned Officer and Junior Special Operations Specialists School cultivates the heritage of the National Army Battalion ZOŚKA.

Today's 1st Special Commando Regiment from Lubliniec, directly subordinated to a Commander of Special Forces, is intended for conducting special operations in the country and beyond its borders in conditions of peace, crisis and war.

The regiment specializes in the following areas of activity:

1.Special reconnaissance;

2.Direct operations, especially subversive warfare;

3. Military support;

4.Unconventional actions.

1. PSK (1st Special Commando Regiment), took part in the following trainings involving soldiers from other countries - NATO members:

•07.1995 - taking part in "DWA ORŁY" exercise, (30 soldiers) along with 10th SFG company `C '- exercise area - Wędrzyn

•1998 - joint exercises under the code name " SZTYLET I i II” (250 soldiers)

•during April and August with groups 1 / 10 SFG, soldiers of 75th “Rangers” regiment, the GROM unit - exercise area - south western Poland;

•08.1999 - "ARTIST ULAN" exercise with 21st SAS regiment (300 soldiers) exercise area - Bieszczady, Kraków, Rudniki

•01.2000 - joint exercises of KGS (50 soldiers) with 10th SFG group – exercise area - Lubliniec

•01.2000 – participation of KGS (8 soldiers) in a training in mountains with the German 200th long distance recon company

•08.2000 - joint exercises of KGS (48 soldiers) with 10th SFG group, training area - Lubliniec

•04.2001 - joint exercises of KGS (50 soldiers) with 10th SFG group, training area - Lubliniec

•03.2002 - participation in an international training "Strong Resolve" (130 soldiers) - Słupsk;

•Autumn 2006 - international training "SHAMROCK KEY" - Lithuania

At present, the unit is in constant contact with 10th SFG of U.S. Army based in Germany, German 200th long distance recon company, Royal Noncommissioned Officer School from Netherlands and with soldiers from Multinational Corps in Szczecin.

cross section: lateral root origin

magnification: 400x

Berkshire Community College Bioscience Image Library

In angiosperms and gymnosperms lateral roots usually form when a few mature cells of the root pericycle become meristematic. The primordial cell mass matures into a growing tip that grows through the cortex, ultimately piercing the epidermis

Technical Questions:bioimagesoer@gmail.com

The sample return capsule from NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission is seen shortly after touching down in the desert, Sunday, September 24, 2023, at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. The sample inside was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

OSIRIS-REx was the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. After dropping off the sample, the spacecraft was renamed OSIRIS-APEX and sent on a new mission to explore asteroid Apophis in 2029.

NASA Media Usage Guidelines

Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber

Image Number: NHQ202309240003

Date: September 24, 2023

Single origin coffee menu at Blue Bottle Mint Plaza. Served on either the San Marco or the Siphon Bar.

Photomode + Otis tools

reshade

Saint-Jacques-des-Guérets (Loir-et-Cher)

L'église Saint-Jacques.

Statue de saint Jacques, bois sculpté peint (XIVe).

(Voir panneau sur le site)

C'est un édifice fort simple, composé d'une nef unique et d'une abside semi-circulaire légèrement en retrait. Il est éclairé par des fenêtres en plein cintre profondément ébrasées, trois de chaque coté de la nef et trois à l'abside, du moins à l'origine.

Le portail occidental est percé dans un massif rectangulaire, flanqué de deux oculi surmonté d'un glacis amorti sur une corniche soutenue par des modillons sculptés : masques grotesques, sirène, tête de femme.

Les trois archivoltes du portail en tiers-point, ornées chacune d'un tore et d'un rang de feuilles plates sculptées dans une gorge, sont extradossées par un larmier décoré de fleurettes et retombent de chaque côté sur trois colonnettes dans les retraits des piédroits. Une seule d'entre elles est d'origine. Ce portail est plus récent que l'ensemble de l'église.

A l'intérieur, l'édifice n'a jamais reçu de voûtes; le vaisseau et l'abside sont couverts d'un lambris du XVIe siècle, à entraits et poinçons moulurés, conservant des restes de peintures décoratives.

La première fenêtre de la nef est transformée en niche. Il ne subsiste que deux fenêtres dans le mur de l'abside, Ia fenêtre ayant été de plus remaniée.

L'abside fut masquée en 1722 par un retable de pierre qui fut enlevé en 1890. La suppression de ce retable donna la surprise de découvrir dans l'ébrasement de la fenêtre centrale plusieurs statues de bois peint, ou de pierre.

Mais cette église est célèbre par le remarquable ensemble de peintures romanes que l'abbé Haugou, curé de Troo, y a découvert en 1890 et 1891, un des plus complets de cette vallée du Loir, si riche en œuvres de ce genre.

Ces fresques sont datées d'une époque voisine de l'avènement de Philippe Auguste (1180), ou de la seconde moitié du XIIe siècle.

Les peintures murales

L'église étant dépourvue de voûtes, les artistes ont utilisé le mur semi-circulaire de l'abside de chaque côté de la fenêtre axiale, elle-même ornée des images de saint Georges et de saint Augustin, pour y faire figurer une crucifixion et un Christ en majesté, deux magnifiques compositions évoquant sans doute des pages peintes de manuscrit sur une échelle agrandie.

Le Christ en croix.

À gauche de la fenêtre, le Christ en croix, à ses côtés la Vierge et saint Jean et dans les cantons supérieurs le soleil et la lune se voilant la face. La croix mi-partie émeraude et noire, aux extrémités pattées, est bordée d'une bande jaune semée de cabochons comme s'il s'agissait d'une croix d'orfèvrerie. La Vierge est dans une attitude recueillie et priante, les mains jointes; saint Jean de sa main gauche recouverte par le manteau tient son Évangile : « Ils regardent Celui qu'ils ont transpercé » (Jn 19, 37), de sa main droite, il soutient sa tète. On lit l'inscription IOANES de chaque côté du nimbe.

Le Christ, le corps légèrement bombé droite, vêtu du perizonium, étend les bras presque à l'horizontale. Ses deux pieds, en rotation externe, sont cloués sur le suppedaneum. Sa tête, très noble, est celle d'un vivant alors qu'il a été transpercé. Ses cheveux tombent sur les épaules et le nimbe crucifère est simplement dessiné. Les figurations du soleil et de la lune sont identifiables par les inscriptions placées verticalement le long de la partie supérieure de la croix. Les deux personnages trouant l'obscurité symbolisée par les nuages festonnés s'inclinent vers la croix et d'un beau geste s'apprêtent à se couvrir le visage. La tête du soleil est nimbée d'un disque sombre orné de rayons; celle de la lune d'un disque bleu clair. L'ensemble est encadré d'une bande losangée jaune, bleue et verte. Les personnages se détachent sur le fond blanc du lait de chaux de la fresque.

Plus bas, une sorte de prédelle montre près d'un ange assis les morts qui sortent de leur tombeau (Mt 27, 52). Certains soulèvent leur couvercle. Les sarcophages sont plus larges à la tête qu'aux pieds et la cuve ainsi que les couvercles sont ornés de la taille en feuille de fougère qui caractérise les tombes du haut Moyen Age. Le peintre aura voulu imiter les sarcophages de vieux cimetières et particulièrement de celui qui entoure encore l'église.

Le Christ en gloire.

Du côté opposé, également dans un grand cadre rectangulaire, le Christ en gloire est représenté, selon l'usage, trônant dans une mandorle elliptique qu'entourent les quatre figurations symboliques des évangélistes désignés par les inscriptions.

Le Christ, assis sur un fauteuil châtain couvert d'un coussin bleu, est vêtu d'une tunique blanche retenue au corps par une ceinture orange. Un manteau ample et sombre enveloppe les épaules et retombe sur les bras majestueusement. Le drapé est fort bien rendu. Les traits du visage sont presque identiques à ceux du Christ en croix. Le nimbe crucifère est plus accusé que le précédent. Le Seigneur lève la main droite, tandis que la main gauche tient le livre fermé.

Les coloris sont particuliers à cette figuration : " La couleur de la robe du Christ a été obtenue à l'aide d'un ton vert sur un fond d'ocre jaune et le manteau est un combiné d'ocre rouge et de blanc avec des rehauts de bleu outremer, ce qui donne une tonalité mauve d'une valeur exceptionnelle."

Les symboles des évangélistes : L'ange et l'aigle sont inscrits dans le cadre, le taureau et le lion au contraire débordant du cadre et sont un peu disproportionnés par rapport aux autres. On remarquera l'inversion des symboles inférieurs : le bœuf est à gauche et le lion à droite, ce qui est exceptionnel.

La Cène.

Au-dessous, la représentation de la Cène est traitée à plus petite échelle. Le Christ au centre de la table est entouré de ses apôtres, quatre de chaque côté, du moins actuellement. La table est couverte d'une nappe aux plis bien ordonnés. Comme de coutume, saint Pierre est la gauche du Seigneur avec sa grande clef, Saint Jean à sa droite penché sur sa poitrine, le Christ tend la bouchée fatale à Judas qui s'agenouille devant la table. On peut être surpris de voir la tête de Judas nimbée. Les éléments du repas ont été peints non sur la table, mais sur les plis de la nappe; cinq plats, des poissons, un pichet, des coupes de terre cuite, des petits pains ronds, des couteaux à manches noirs, à lames en spatule. Le docteur Fr. Lesueur y voyait une maladresse de l'artiste, mais il est plus probable que tous ces éléments ont été ajoutés après coup.

Au-dessus de la fenêtre centrale figure l'Agneau blanc sur fond jaune dans un médaillon cerclé de blanc et de violet.

L'intrados de cette fenêtre est décoré de la main divine, et sur les côtés sont représentés saint Georges et saint Augustin - (désignés par des inscriptions) - les patrons de l'abbaye et de l'ordre dont dépendait ce prieuré-cure : saint Georges en chevalier armé et saint Augustin avec sa crosse, coiffé d'une mitre à deux pointes. Saint Georges, debout, coiffé d'un heaume de fer assez haut dont la calotte est arrondie, et sanglé dans sa cotte de mailles serrée à la taille par un ceinturon auquel est attaché le fourreau de l'épée, porte à son cou, accroché par une courroie, un large écu. Sa main droite tient une lance à gonfalon dont l'extrémité inférieure empale la gueule d'un dragon ailé que le saint écrase sous ses pieds. Le bouclier pend au flanc gauche. L'écu, le bouclier et Ie gonfalon portent des armoiries indécises, damier blanc et noir.

Le paradis.

A l'entrée de l'abside, de ce même côté, est représenté le paradis. Au-dessus de la fenêtre, deux anges sont tournés vers la Jérusalem céleste, symbolisée par quatre rangées de quatre arcades où dans chacune d'elles figuraient les bustes de seize élus couronnés d'or et de pierreries. Les écoinçons de ces arcades étaient ornés d'un quatre-feuilles flanqué de quatre perles, et surmontés de croix pattées à la partie supérieure entre un bouquet de fleurettes. Quelle merveilleuse demeure ! A droite saint Pierre, ses grandes clefs sur !'épaule, introduit les bienheureux dans le paradis. Ces élus sont nus, pour évoquer sans doute le paradis terrestre, image d'une innocence retrouvée pour l'éternité.

Martyre de saint Jacques.

Au registre inférieur, le martyre de saint Jacques le Majeur (Ac 12, 2), titulaire de l'église. Le roi Hérode-Agrippa Ier, couronné d'or et de gemmes, vêtu d'un somptueux manteau noir, les iambes croisées, donne l'ordre à l'un des siens de trancher Ia tête de l'apôtre. Le beau vieillard, à la barbe blanche étreint le livre et bénit son bourreau. Celui-ci, à la mine patibulaire, porte une tunique courte, serrée à la taille par une ceinture à laquelle pend le fourreau vide. On remarquera le magnifique drapé de la tunique grise bordée d'une large bande jaune brodée de blanc, aux plis nettement accusés

en violet, dont le pan se déploie avec élégance, rappelant certains personnages de Saint-Savin. Les trois personnages de cette scène se détachent sur le fond blanc ocré du mortier de chaux de la fresque. .A droite de la tète d'Hérode, l'abbé Haugou, en grattant l'enduit a découvert un fragment de fresque du XIIe siècle représentant une tête d'ange, ce qui prouve que la scène du martyre est une addition légèrement postérieure. Les coloris, de cette figuration, soulignée par un cadre rouge et jaune, d'or, ont été obtenus à l'aide de mélanges de couleurs. Le manteau de saint Jacques est ocre rouge mélangé de jaune et souligné de rouge briqué, la robe du saint présente un drapé vert clair.

Deux vices.

Sous la fenêtre et sous cette scène, deux personnages symbolisant les Vices : L'un est l'Orgueil figuré par un cavalier jeté à bas de sa monture; l'autre est le Désespoir, une femme se transperçant la poitrine avec une épée. Au-dessus de la tête du cavalier, on distingue une aile gris bleu dessinée au trait rouge, qui appartenait probablement à un autre décor antérieur.

Deux scènes peintes immédiatement à droite de celles-ci, sur l'extrémité orientale du mur Sud de la nef, représentent la légende de saint Nicolas et la Résurrection de Lazare sur deux registres superposés

La légende de saint Nicolas.

Alors qu'un de ses voisins tombé dans la misère était sur le point de livrer ses filles à la prostitution pour en tirer bénéfice, saint Nicolas alla la nuit jeter dans sa maison, par la fenêtre, trois pièces d'or pour les doter et les marier. Sous un lit à colonnes et à baldaquin, on voit trois jeunes filles couchées, la tête reposant sur un large oreiller. Le père, un peu plus loin, se tient la tête absorbé par son projet. L'évêque saint Nicolas jette les trois pièces. Une inscription tirée de la légende explique la scène. A droite, une belle figure de Vierge à l'Enfant, debout, assiste à cet épisode, montrant ainsi son assistance bienveillante.

Résurrection de Lazare.

Au registre inférieur nous voyons, sur un geste solennel de Jésus entouré de disciples, Lazare s'asseoir dans un sarcophage orné de strigiles, comme les tombes antiques, dont un homme soulève le couvercle orné de croix et de losanges. A droite, les sœurs de Lazare et des amis de la famille. Sous cette scène se déploie une tenture dont le galon supérieur est orné d'oves. On retrouve cette même tenture sous les fresques du chœur. Ces cortinae sont souvent signalées dans les coutumiers monastiques de l'époque.

Les fins dernières.

Poursuivons vers l'Ouest, entre la seconde et la troisième fenêtre, sur trois registres superposés, est décrite la Descente du Christ aux limbes : En haut les patriarches assis; au dessous les tourments de l'enfer représentés sur des registres avec une prodigalité de détails comparable à celle du tympan de Conques : Démons poussant la horde des réprouvés enchaînés ou la tirant à eux, femmes mordues par des serpents ou des crapauds, un monstre accroupi broyant de sa gueule deux damnés. A droite, une grande figure du Christ délivre Adam et Eve des limbes, de la main il tient un long bâton surmonté d'une petite croix avec lequel il repousse un fauve velu symbolisant sans doute Lucifer. Le Christ, admirable de noblesse et de majesté est vêtu d'une longue robe cuivrée parmi toute une riche harmonie de couleurs déjà entrevue dans le Christ en gloire de l'abside. Au dessus de la tête du Rédempteur, on lit les paroles de saint Paul : O MORS ERO, MORS TUA, MORSUS TUUS ERO, INFERNE (Osée Ch. 13 V. 14), qui constituent la première antienne des Laudes de l'Office monastique du Samedi saint et évoquent la victoire définitive du Christ sur la mort par sa Résurrection glorieuse.

Les cavaliers de saint Georges.

Ce registre inférieur était recouvert d'une belle cavalcade de cinq chevaliers du temps de Saint Louis (1226-1270). Il ne reste que la trace des deux derniers qui ne recouvraient pas la scène de l'enfer. Ces cinq cavaliers, casqués et portant des armoiries sur leur bouclier, le gonfalon et le caparaçon de leurs chevaux, étaient conduits par saint Georges lui-même et nommément désignés par des inscriptions. Saint Georges portait les armes de Matthieu de Montmorency, le " grand connétable ", celui de Bouvines (1214). L'abbé Haugou a émis l'idée que ces chevaliers partaient pour la croisade de Saint Louis en Egypte en 1248, derrière saint Georges, patron des croisés. Mais c'est peu probable, car le quatrième chevalier

portait " de gueules à la croix ancrée d'or ". Ce sont les armes d'une famille du voisinage, la famille d'Avoir, barons de Mortagne et d'Avoir, qui ont peut-être financé la peinture de ces chevaliers. Un seul d'entre eux a pus être conservé en entier au-dessous de la seconde fenêtre méridionale. Un relevé ancien en a gardé le souvenir. Les coloris utilisés étaient ici le jaune, le blanc et le pourpre.

Nativité.

Au Nord, sont encore conservés la Nativité et le Massacre des Innocents. Dans première scène, en bas, on distingue la Vierge étendue : elle désignes le berceau d'osier où dort l'Enfant-Dieu sur un autel à la colonne peinte couleur porphyre. La crèche est figurée avec deux colonnes à chapiteaux dorés. Joseph se tient debout près d'elle. L'âne et le bœuf sont là selon la prophétie d'Isaïe (1, 3) et la version grecque. du prophète Habàquq (3. 2 " Au milieu de deux animaux tu te manifesteras ") reprise par le Livre de la Naissance de la Bienheureuse Marie et du Sauveur (ch. 14).

Le massacre des Innocents.

Il est décrit d'une manière tragique et émouvante. Un soldat vêtu du haubert de mailles arrache par les cheveux un enfant à sa mère. Un autre frappe de son épée un enfant, tandis que la mère se dresse dans une attitude désespérée. Deux femmes sont assises à terre, l'une veut donner encore le sein à son enfant couvert de sang, l'autre presse sur sa joue le visage de son enfant mort, tandis qu'un soldat s'éloigne plein de lassitude et sans doute de dégoût, la lance sur l'épaule.

architecture.relig.free.fr/saint_jacques_guerets.html

Those who are familiar with geology will immediately associate Arran with

" Hutton's Unconformity " He was then able to put forward a theory about the geological history of the earth that was to have a profound effect upon society as did Charles Darwin's " Origin of the Species " as he was the first to propose that the earths surface had evolved over an immense period of time.......

James Hutton 1726-1797

Stitched Panorama

_____

ACOrigins_010

Johann Gottfried (after 1802: von) Herder (25 August 1744 – 18 December 1803) was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism.

Works and ideas

In 1772 Herder published Treatise on the Origin of Language and went further in this promotion of language than his earlier injunction to "spew out the ugly slime of the Seine. Speak German, O You German". Herder now had established the foundations of comparative philology within the new currents of political outlook.

Throughout this period, he continued to elaborate his own unique theory of aesthetics in works such as the above, while Goethe produced works like The Sorrows of Young Werther – the Sturm und Drang movement was born.

Herder wrote an important essay on Shakespeare and Auszug aus einem Briefwechsel über Ossian und die Lieder alter Völker (Extract from a correspondence about Ossian and the Songs of Ancient Peoples) published in 1773 in a manifesto along with contributions by Goethe and Justus Möser. Herder wrote that "A poet is the creator of the nation around him, he gives them a world to see and has their souls in his hand to lead them to that world." To him such poetry had its greatest purity and power in nations before they became civilised, as shown in the Old Testament, the Edda, and Homer, and he tried to find such virtues in ancient German folk songs and Norse poetry and mythology.

After becoming General Superintendent in 1776, Herder's philosophy shifted again towards classicism. Herder was at his best during this period, and produced works such as his unfinished Outline of a Philosophical History of Humanity which largely originated the school of historical thought. Herder's philosophy was of a deeply subjective turn, stressing influence by physical and historical circumstance upon human development, stressing that "one must go into the age, into the region, into the whole history, and feel one's way into everything". The historian should be the "regenerated contemporary" of the past, and history a science as "instrument of the most genuine patriotic spirit".

Herder gave Germans new pride in their origins, modifying that dominance of regard allotted to Greek art (Greek revival) extolled among others by Johann Joachim Winckelmann and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. He remarked that he would have wished to be born in the Middle Ages and mused whether "the times of the Swabian emperors" did not "deserve to be set forth in their true light in accordance with the German mode of thought?". Herder equated the German with the Gothic and favoured Dürer and everything Gothic. As with the sphere of art, equally he proclaimed a national message within the sphere of language. He topped the line of German authors emanating from Martin Opitz, who had written his Aristarchus, sive de contemptu linguae Teutonicae in Latin in 1617, urging Germans to glory in their hitherto despised language. Herder's extensive collections of folk-poetry began a great craze in Germany for that neglected topic.

Along with Wilhelm von Humboldt, Herder was one of the first to argue that language determines thought, a theme that two centuries later would be central to the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. Herder's focus upon language and cultural traditions as the ties that create a "nation" extended to include folklore, dance, music and art, and inspired Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in their collection of German folk tales.

Herder attached exceptional importance to the concept of nationality and of patriotism – "he that has lost his patriotic spirit has lost himself and the whole worlds about himself", whilst teaching that "in a certain sense every human perfection is national". Herder carried folk theory to an extreme by maintaining that "there is only one class in the state, the Volk, (not the rabble), and the king belongs to this class as well as the peasant". Explanation that the Volk was not the rabble was a novel conception in this era, and with Herder can be seen the emergence of "the people" as the basis for the emergence of a classless but hierarchical national body.

The nation, however, was individual and separate, distinguished, to Herder, by climate, education, foreign intercourse, tradition and heredity. Providence he praised for having "wonderfully separated nationalities not only by woods and mountains, seas and deserts, rivers and climates, but more particularly by languages, inclinations and characters". Herder praised the tribal outlook writing that "the savage who loves himself, his wife and child with quiet joy and glows with limited activity of his tribe as for his own life is in my opinion a more real being than that cultivated shadow who is enraptured with the shadow of the whole species", isolated since "each nationality contains its centre of happiness within itself, as a bullet the centre of gravity". With no need for comparison since "every nation bears in itself the standard of its perfection, totally independent of all comparison with that of others" for "do not nationalities differ in everything, in poetry, in appearance, in tastes, in usages, customs and languages? Must not religion which partakes of these also differ among the nationalities?"

Following a trip to Ukraine, Herder wrote a prediction in his diary (Journal meiner Reise im Jahre 1769) that Slavic nations would one day be the real power in Europe, as the western Europeans would reject Christianity and rot away, while the eastern European nations would stick to their religion and their idealism, and would this way become the power in Europe. More specifically, he praised Ukraine's "beautiful skies, blithe temperament, musical talent, bountiful soil, etc. [...] someday will awaken there a cultured nation whose influence will spread [...] throughout the world." One of his related predictions was that the Hungarian nation would disappear and become assimilated by surrounding Slavic peoples; this prophecy caused considerable uproar in Hungary and is widely cited to this day.

Germany and the Enlightenment

This question was further developed by Herder's lament that Martin Luther did not establish a national church, and his doubt whether Germany did not buy Christianity at too high a price, that of true nationality. Herder's patriotism bordered at times upon national pantheism, demanding of territorial unity as "He is deserving of glory and gratitude who seeks to promote the unity of the territories of Germany through writings, manufacture, and institutions" and sounding an even deeper call:

"But now! Again I cry, my German brethren! But now! The remains of all genuine folk-thought is rolling into the abyss of oblivion with a last and accelerated impetus. For the last century we have been ashamed of everything that concerns the fatherland."

In his Ideas upon Philosophy and the History of Mankind he even wrote, "Compare England with Germany: the English are Germans, and even in the latest times the Germans have led the way for the English in the greatest things."

Herder, who hated absolutism and Prussian nationalism, but who was imbued with the spirit of the whole German Volk, yet as historical theorist turned away from the light of the eighteenth century. Seeking to reconcile his thought with this earlier age, Herder sought to harmonize his conception of sentiment with reasoning, whereby all knowledge is implicit in the soul; the most elementary stage is sensuous and intuitive perception which by development can become self-conscious and rational. To Herder, this development is the harmonizing of primitive and derivative truth, of experience and intelligence, feeling and reasoning.

Herder is the first in a long line of Germans preoccupied with this harmony. This search is itself the key to much in German theory. And Herder was too penetrating a thinker not to understand and fear the extremes to which his folk-theory could tend, and so issued specific warnings. He argued that Jews in Germany should enjoy the full rights and obligations of Germans, and that the non-Jews of the world owed a debt to Jews for centuries of abuse, and that this debt could be discharged only by actively assisting those Jews who wished to do so to regain political sovereignty in their ancient homeland of Israel. Herder refused to adhere to a rigid racial theory, writing that "notwithstanding the varieties of the human form, there is but one and the same species of man throughout the whole earth".

He also announced that "national glory is a deceiving seducer. When it reaches a certain height, it clasps the head with an iron band. The enclosed sees nothing in the mist but his own picture; he is susceptible to no foreign impressions." And:

The passage of time was to demonstrate that while many Germans were to find influence in Herder's convictions and influence, fewer were to note his qualifying stipulations.

Herder had emphasised that his conception of the nation encouraged democracy and the free self-expression of a people's identity. He proclaimed support for the French Revolution, a position which did not endear him to royalty. He also differed with Kant's philosophy for not placing reasoning within the context of language. Herder did not think that reason itself could be criticized, as it did not exist except as the process of reasoning. This process was dependent on language.[25] He also turned away from the Sturm und Drang movement to go back to the poems of Shakespeare and Homer.

To promote his concept of the Volk, he published letters and collected folk songs. These latter were published in 1773 as Voices of the Peoples in Their Songs (Stimmen der Völker in ihren Liedern). The poets Achim von Arnim and Clemens von Brentano later used Stimmen der Völker as samples for The Boy's Magic Horn (Des Knaben Wunderhorn).

Herder also fostered the ideal of a person’s individuality. Although he had from an early period championed the individuality of cultures - for example, in his This Too a Philosophy of History for the Formation of Humanity (1774), he also championed the individuality of persons within a culture; for example, in his On Thomas Abbt's Writings (1768) and On the Cognition and Sensation of the Human Soul (1778).

In On Thomas Abbt's Writings, Herder stated that "a human soul is an individual in the realm of minds: it senses in accordance with an individual formation, and thinks in accordance with the strength of its mental organs. . .. My long allegory has succeeded if it achieves the representation of the mind of a human being as an individual phenomenon, as a rarity which deserves to occupy our eyes.

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20161004 S 2578 5362 PhotosLVRiga Monument to Johann Gottfried Herder at the Cathedral, Vecpilseta, Riga, Riga pilseta, Latvia

Mohrungen (today: Morąg, Poland) 1744 - Weimar 1803

German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic; he taught in Riga, 1764-1769

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Johann Gottfried von Herder, (* 25. kolovoza 1744. Mohrungen, Pruska; † 18. prosinca 1803. u Weimaru) je bio njemački književnik, prevoditelj, teolog i filozof Weimarške klasike. Plemićki naslov nosi od 1802. godine. Često ga se naziva i tvorcem pojma kulturnog nacionalizma.

Životopis

Mladost

Johann Gottfried Herder rođen kao sin kantora i učitelja Gottfrieda Herdera i njegove druge žene Anne Elisabethe, rođene Peltz. Iz poštovanja prema vrlo religioznim roditeljima je studirao teologiju. Njegovo prvo djelo je posvečeno smrti brata Carla Friedricha stihom Auf meinen ersten Todten! das Liebste, was ich auf dieser Welt verloren.

Filozofija

Iako je u mladosti bio pod utjecajem filozofa poput Kanta i Rousseaua kasnije je postao najveći intelektualni protivnik prosvetiteljstva i značajno utjecao na razvoj romantizma u Njemačkoj. Time što je naglašavao naciju kao organsku skupinu čija su obilježja poseban jezik, kultura i duh, Herder je pridonio kako nastanku povijesti kulture tako i posebnog oblika nacionalizma koji ističe urođenost vrijednosti nacionalne kulture i narodu u koje su ukorijenjeni.

Definicijom pojma Volkgeist (duša naroda) s njim započinje etnologija. Tvorac je i pojma Zeitgeist kojeg je prvi put uporabio 1769.

Herder govori o nacionalnom duhu i karakteru, u kojem sve vrijednosti, aktivnosti i tvorevine do njihove filozofije i poezije, imaju zajedničko težište i koji ovima daje specifični karakter.

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Bikaner is a city in the northwest of the state of Rajasthan in northern India. It is located 330 kilometres northwest of the state capital, Jaipur. Bikaner city is the administrative headquarters of Bikaner District and Bikaner division.

Formerly the capital of the princely state of Bikaner, the city was founded by Rao Bika in 1486 and from its small origins it has developed into the fifth largest city in Rajasthan. The Ganges Canal, completed in 1928, and the Indira Gandhi Canal, completed in 1987, facilitated its development.

HISTORY

Prior to the mid 15th century, the region that is now Bikaner was a barren wilderness called Jangladesh. In 1488 Rao Bika established the city of Bikaner. According to James Tod, the spot which Bika selected for his capital, was the birthright of a Nehra Jat, who would only concede it for this purpose on the condition that his name should be linked in perpetuity with its surrender. Naira, or Nera, was the name of the proprietor, which Bika added to his own, thus composing that of the future capital, Bikaner. Rao Bika was the first son of Maharaja Rao Jodha of the Rathor clan, the founder of Jodhpur and conquered the largely arid country in the north of Rajasthan. As the first son of Jodha he wanted to have his own kingdom not inheriting Jodhpur from his father or the title of Maharaja. He therefore decided to build his own kingdom in what is now the state of Bikaner in the area of Jungladesh. Though it was in the Thar Desert, Bikaner was considered an oasis on the trade route between Central Asia and the Gujarat coast as it had adequate spring water. Bika’s name was attached to the city he built and to the state of Bikaner ("the settlement of Bika") that he established. Bika built a fort in 1478, which is now in ruins, and a hundred years later a new fort was built about 1.5 km from the city centre, known as the Junagarh Fort.

Around a century after Rao Bika founded Bikaner, the state's fortunes flourished under the sixth Raja, Rai Singhji, who ruled from 1571 to 1611. During the Mughal Empire’s rule in the country, Raja Rai Singh accepted the suzerainty of the Mughals and held a high rank as an army general at the court of the Emperor Akbar and his son the Emperor Jahangir. Rai Singh's successful military exploits, which involved winning half of Mewar kingdom for the Empire, won him accolades and rewards from the Mughal emperors. He was given the jagirs (lands) of Gujarat and Burhanpur. With the large revenue earned from these jagirs, he built the Chintamani durg (Junagarh fort) on a plain which has an average elevation of 230 m. He was an expert in arts and architecture, and the knowledge he acquired during his visits abroad is amply reflected in the numerous monuments he built at the Junagarh fort.

Maharaja Karan Singh, who ruled from 1631 to 1639, under the suzerainty of the Mughals, built the Karan Mahal palace. Later rulers added more floors and decorations to this Mahal. Anup Singh ji, who ruled from 1669 to 1698, made substantial additions to the fort complex, with new palaces and the Zenana quarter, a royal dwelling for women and children. He refurbished the Karan Mahal with a Diwan-i-Am (public audience hall) and called it the Anup Mahal.Maharaja Gaj Singh, who ruled from 1746 to 1787 refurbished the Chandra Mahal (the Moon palace).

During the 18th century, there was internecine war between the rulers of Bikaner and Jodhpur and also amongst other thakurs, which was put down by British troops.

Following Maharaja Gaj Singh, Maharaja Surat Singh ruled from 1787 to 1828 and lavishly decorated the audience hall (see illustration) with glass and lively paintwork. Under a treaty of paramountcy signed in 1818, during Maharaja Surat Singh's reign, Bikaner came under the suzerainty of the British, after which the Maharajas of Bikaner invested heavily in refurbishing Junagarh fort.

Dungar Singh, who reigned from 1872 to 1887, built the Badal Mahal, the 'weather palace', so named in view of a painting of clouds and falling rain, a rare event in arid Bikaner.

General Maharaja Ganga Singh, who ruled from 1887 to 1943, was the best-known of the Rajasthan princes and was a favourite of the British Viceroys of India. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India, served as a member of the Imperial War Cabinet, represented India at the Imperial Conferences during the First World War and the British Empire at the Versailles Peace Conference. His contribution to the building activity in Junagarh involved separate halls for public and private audiences in the Ganga Mahal and a durbar hall for formal functions. He also built the Ganga Niwas Palace, which has towers at the entrance patio. This palace was designed by Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob, the third of the new palaces built in Bikaner. He named the building Lalgarh Palace in honour of his father and moved his main residence there from Junagarh Fort in 1902. The hall where he held his Golden Jubilee (in 1938) as Bikaner's ruler is now a museum.

Ganga Singh's son, Lieutenant-General Sir Sadul Singh, the Yuvaraja of Bikaner, succeeded his father as Maharaja in 1943, but acceded his state to the Union of India in 1949. Maharaja Sadul Singh died in 1950, being succeeded in the title by his son, Karni Singh (1924-1988).[6] The Royal Family still lives in a suite in Lalgarh Palace, which they have converted into a heritage hotel.

TRANSPORT

The internal transport system in Bikaner consists of autorickshaws and city buses. Bikaner railway station is on the Jodhpur-Bathinda line. Bikaner is connected to some of major Indian cities via broad gauge railway. The city has direct rail connections to Sri Ganganagar, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Alwar, Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Bilaspur, Kanpur, Agra, Jalandhar, Baroda, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Jaipur, Surat, Gurgaon, Jalandhar, Puri, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, Chandigarh, Kota, Kollam, Jammu, Jodhpur and Ahmedabad, Pune, Indore, Vijayawada. However, there is no rail connectivity for other major Indian cities like Silchar, Indore,[clarification needed] Jhansi, Ranchi, Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Kurukshetra, Faridabad.

Bikaner is well served with roads and is linked directly to Delhi, Jaipur , Agra , Alwar, Ludhiana, Sri Ganganagar , Bhatinda, Ambala, Ahmedabad, Haridwar, Jodhpur, and many other cities. National highways 11, 15, and 89 meet at Bikaner.

CLIMATE

Bikaner is situated in the middle of the Thar desert and has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh) with very little rainfall and extreme temperatures. In summer temperatures can exceed 45 °C, and during the winter they may dip below freezing.

The climate in Bikaner is characterised by significant variations in temperature. In the summer season it is very hot when the temperatures lie in the range of 28–48.5 °C. In the winter, it is fairly cold with temperatures lying in the range of 5–23.2 °C. Annual rainfall is in the range of 260–440 millimetres.

JUNAGARH FORT

The Junagarh Fort and its temples and palaces are preserved as museums and provide insight into the grandiose living style of the past Maharanas of Rajasthan.

LAXMI NIWAS PALACE

The Laxmi Niwas Palace is a former residential palace built by Maharajah Ganga Singh, the ruler of the former state of Bikaner. It was designed by the British architect, Col Samuel Swinton Jacob in the year 1902. The style of architecture is Indo-Saracenic. It is now a luxury Heritage hotel owned by Golden Triangle Fort & Palace P. Ltd. The magnificent structure in red sandstone is one of the most popular destinations for tourists in Bikaner. The Shri ram heritage a unit of Rao Bikaji Groups home stay owend / heritage hotel by Brigadier Jagmal singh rathore VrC, VsM descendant of Rao Bika ji Founder of Bikaner, Rao Bikaji Camel safari a unit of Rao Bikaji Groups.

KARNI MATA TEMPLE

The world famous shrine of Karni Mata can be found in the town of Deshnoke 30 km south from Bikaner on the road to Jodhpur. Karni Mata is worshiped as an incarnation of Goddess Durga.

WIKIPEDIA

Fatehpur Sikri (Hindi: फ़तेहपुर सीकरी, Urdu: فتحپور سیکری‎) is a city and a municipal board in Agra district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The city was founded in 1569 by the Mughal emperor Akbar, and served as the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1571 to 1585. After his military victories over Chittor and Ranthambore, Akbar decided to shift his capital from Agra to a new location 37 km WSW on the Sikri ridge, to honor the Sufi saint Salim Chishti. Here he commenced the construction of a planned walled city which took the next fifteen years in planning and construction of a series of royal palaces, harem, courts, a mosque, private quarters and other utility buildings. He named the city, Fatehabad, with Fateh, a word of Arabic origin in Persian, meaning "victorious." it was later called Fatehpur Sikri. It is at Fatehpur Sikri that the legends of Akbar and his famed courtiers, the nine jewels or Navaratnas, were born. Fatehpur Sikri is one of the best preserved collections of Indian Mughal architecture in India.

According to contemporary historians, Akbar took a great interest in the building of Fatehpur Sikri and probably also dictated its architectural style. Seeking to revive the splendours of Persian court ceremonial made famous by his ancestor Timur, Akbar planned the complex on Persian principles. But the influences of his adopted land came through in the typically Indian embellishments. The easy availability of sandstone in the neighbouring areas of Fatehpur Sikri, also meant that all the buildings here were made of the red stone. The imperial Palace complex consists of a number of independent pavilions arranged in formal geometry on a piece of level ground, a pattern derived from Arab and central Asian tent encampments. In its entirety, the monuments at Fatehpur Sikri thus reflect the genius of Akbar in assimilating diverse regional architectural influences within a holistic style that was uniquely his own.

The Imperial complex was abandoned in 1585, shortly after its completion, due to paucity of water and its proximity with the Rajputana areas in the North-West, which were increasingly in turmoil. Thus the capital was shifted to Lahore so that Akbar could have a base in the less stable part of the empire, before moving back to Agra in 1598, where he had begun his reign as he shifted his focus to Deccan. In fact, he never returned to the city except for a brief period in 1601. In later Mughal history it was occupied for a short while by Mughal emperor, Muhammad Shah (r. 1719 -1748), and his regent, Sayyid Hussain Ali Khan Barha, one of the Syed Brothers, was murdered here in 1720. Today much of the imperial complex which spread over nearly two mile long and one mile wide area is largely intact and resembles a ghost town. It is still surrounded by a five mile long wall built during its original construction, on three sides. However apart from the imperial buildings complex few other buildings stand in the area, which is mostly barren, except of ruins of the bazaars of the old city near the Naubat Khana, the 'drum-house' entrance at Agra Road. The modern town lies at the western end of the complex, which was a municipality from 1865 to 1904, and later made a "notified area", and in 1901 had a population of 7,147. For a long time it was still known for its masons and stone carvers, though in Akbar time it was known and 'fabrics of hair' and 'silk-spinning'. The village of Sikri still exists nearby.

ARCHITECTURE OF FATEHPUR SIKRI

Fatehpur Sikri sits on rocky ridge, 3 kilometres in length and 1 km wide, and palace city is surrounded by a 6 km wall on three side with the fourth being a lake at the time. Its architect was Tuhir Das and Dhruv Chawla and was constructed using Indian principles. The buildings of Fatehpur Sikri show a synthesis of various regional schools of architectural craftsmanship such as Gujarat and Bengal. This was because indigenous craftsmen were used for the construction of the buildings. Influences from Hindu and Jain architecture are seen hand in hand with Islamic elements. The building material used in all the buildings at Fatehpur Sikri, palace-city complex, is the locally quarried red sandstone, known as 'Sikri sandstone'. It is accessed through gates along the five-mile long fort wall, namely, Delhi Gate, the Lal Gate, the Agra Gate, Birbal's Gate, Chandanpal Gate, The Gwalior Gate, the Tehra Gate, the Chor Gate and the Ajmere Gate.

Some of the important buildings in this city, both religious and secular are:

Buland Darwaza: Set into the south wall of congregational mosque, the Jama Masjid at Fatehpur Sikri, this stupendous piece of architecture is 55 metre high, from the outside, gradually making a transition to a human scale in the inside. The gate was added some five years later after the completion of the mosque ca. 1576-1577 as an 'victory arch', to commemorate the Akbar's successful Gujarat campaign. It carries two inscriptions in the archway, one of which reads: "Isa, Son of Mariam said: The world is a bridge, pass over it, but build no houses on it. He who hopes for an hour may hope for eternity. The world endures but an hour. Spend it in prayer, for the rest is unseen".

The central portico comprises three arched entrances, with the largest one, in the centre, is known locally as the Horseshoe Gate, after the custom of nailing horseshoes to its large wooden doors for luck. Outside the giant steps of the Buland Darwaza to left is deep well.

Jama Masjid: It is a Jama Mosque meaning the congregational mosque, and was perhaps one of the first buildings to come up in the complex, as its epigraph gives AH 979 (AD 1571-72) as the date of its completion, with a massive entrance to the courtyard, the Buland-Darwaza added some five years later. It was built in the manner of Indian mosques, with iwans around a central courtyard. A distinguishing feature is the row of chhatri over the sanctuary. There are three mihrabs in each of the seven bays, while the large central mihrab is covered by a dome, it is decorated with white marble inlay, in geometric patterns.

Tomb of Salim Chishti: A white marble encased tomb of the Sufi saint, Salim Chisti (1478–1572), within the Jama Masjid's sahn, courtyard. The single-storey structure is built around a central square chamber, within which is the grave of the saint, under an ornate wooden canopy encrusted with mother-of-pearl mosaic. Surrounding it is a covered passageway for circumambulation, with carved Jalis, stone pierced screens all around with intricate geometric design, and an entrance to the south. The tomb is influenced by earlier mausolea of the early 15th century Gujarat Sultanate period. Other striking features of the tomb are white marble serpentine brackets, which support sloping eaves around the parapet.

On the left of the tomb, to the east, stands a red sandstone tomb of Islam Khan I, son of Shaikh Badruddin Chisti and grandson of Shaikh Salim Chishti, who became a general in the Mughal army in the reign of Jahangir. The tomb is topped by a dome and thirty-six small domed chattris, and contains a number of graves, some unnamed, all male descendants of Shaikh Salim Chisti.

Diwan-i-Aam : Diwan-i-Am or Hall of Public Audience, is a building typology found in many cities where the ruler meets the general public. In this case, it is a pavilion-like multi-bayed rectangular structure fronting a large open space. South west of the Diwan-i-Am and next to the Turkic Sultana's House stand Turkic Baths.

Diwan-i-Khas: the Diwan-i-Khas, or Hall of Private Audience, is a plain square building with four chhatris on the roof. However it is famous for its central pillar, which has a square base and an octagonal shaft, both carved with bands of geometric and floral designs, further its thirty-six serpentine brackets support a circular platform for Akbar, which is connected to each corner of the building on the first floor, by four stone walkways. It is here that Akbar had representatives of different religions discuss their faiths and gave private audience.

Ibadat Khana: (House of Worship) was a meeting house built in 1575 CE by the Mughal Emperor Akbar, where the foundations of a new Syncretistic faith, Din-e-Ilahi were laid by Akbar.

Anup Talao: A ornamental pool with a central platform and four bridges leading up to it. Some of the important buildings of the royal enclave are surround by it including, Khwabgah (House of Dreams) Akbar's residence, Panch Mahal, a five-storey palace, Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audience), Ankh Michauli and the Astrologer's Seat, in the south-west corner of the Pachisi Court.

Hujra-i-Anup Talao: Said to be the residence of Akbar's Muslim wife, although this is disputed due to its small size.

Mariam-uz-Zamani's Palace: The building of Akbar's Rajput wives, including Mariam-uz-Zamani, shows Gujarati influence and is built around a courtyard, with special care being taken to ensure privacy.

Naubat Khana: Also known as Naqqar Khana meaning a drum house, where musician used drums to announce the arrival of the Emperor. It is situated ahead of the Hathi Pol Gate or the Elephant Gate, the south entrance to the complex, suggesting that it was the imperial entrance.

Pachisi Court: A square marked out as a large board game, the precursor to modern day Ludo game where people served as the playing pieces.

Panch Mahal: A five-storied palatial structure, with the tiers gradually diminishing in size, till the final one, which is a single large-domed chhatri. Originally pierced stone screens faced the façade, and probably sub-divided the interior as well, suggesting it was built for the ladies of the court. The floors are supported by intricately carved columns on each level, totalling to 176 columns in all.

Birbal's House: The house of Akbar's favorite minister, who was a Hindu. Notable features of the building are the horizontal sloping sunshades or chajjas and the brackets which support them.

Recent excavation done by ASI in 2000 led to unearthing of an ancient jain city very near to the fort complex.

Other buildings included Taksal (mint), 'Daftar Khana (Records Office), Karkhanas (royal workshop), Khazana (treasury), Turkic styled Baths, Darogha's Quarters, stables, Caravan sarai, Hakim's quarters etc.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Fatehpur Sikri has a population of 28,757. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Fatehpur Sikri has an average literacy rate of 46%, lower than the national average of 74%: male literacy is 57%, and female literacy is 34%. In Fatehpur Sikri, 59% of the population is under 6 years of age.

ADMINISTRATIVE ESTABLISHMENT

Fatehpur Sikri is one of the fifteen Block headquarters in the Agra district it has 52 Gram panchayats (Village Panchayat) under it.

The Fatehpur Sikri, is a constituency of the Lok Sabha, Lower house of the Indian Parliament, and further comprises five Vidhan Sabha (legislative assembly) segments:

Agra Rural

Fatehpur Sikri

Kheragarh

Fatehabad

Bah

In all there are 12 villages of Sisodia Rajputs near Fatehpur Sikri fort in Agra district. These are Daultabad, Nayavas, Satha, korai, Behrawati, Byara, Undera, Kachora, Singarpur, Vidyapur, Onera, Arrua.

TRANSPORT

Fatehpur Sikri is about 39 km. from Agra. The nearest Airport is the Agra Airport (also known as Kheria Airport), 40 km from Fatehpur Sikri. The nearest railway station is the Fatehpur Sikri Railway Station, about one km. from the city centre . It is suitably connected to Agra and neighbouring centres by road, where regular bus services of UPSRTC ply, apart from Tourist buses and taxies.

WIKIPEDIA

En 2017, les amateurs de voitures françaises à moteur V8 des années 1930 à 1960 Matford, Ford SAF, et Simca seront réunis dans sa région d'origine à Saint Malo .

Sont attendus chez les corsaires environ 70 Vedette.

Présentation du Club Vedette France

Le Club Vedette France est une association créée en 1977 sous la loi du 1er juillet 1901. Ses statuts en définissent l'organisation et le fonctionnement.

Il a vocation à regrouper les amateurs de véhicules automobiles des marques Matford, Ford-S.A.F et Simca équipés d'un moteur huit cylindres en V à soupapes latérales ainsi que tous les véhicules dérivés et camions, génériquement dénommés "Vedette".

Le Club Vedette France a pour buts :

- de créer des liens amicaux entre les amateurs de "Vedette" en France et à l'étranger,

- d'encourager la réalisation de restaurations de leurs "Vedette" et d'aider à leur conservation, conformes à l'origine,

- de rechercher l'histoire et de promouvoir l'image des "Vedette".

Le Club Vedette France possède plus de 650 membres à fin 2014.

Le Club Vedette France a été fondé en 1977 en Bretagne par un petit groupe de sept passionnés des voitures françaises à moteur V8. Très vite, le club a acquis une dimension nationale puis internationale. Le nombre d’adhérents oscille entre 600 et 700 depuis le début des années 2000, dont une trentaine répartis dans une quinzaine de pays européens et américains. Le club regroupe les amateurs des modèles Matford, Ford S.A.F., Simca, Simca do Brazil, et les camions français Ford et Simca, équipés du moteur V8 Ford à soupapes latérales. Ils’agit plutôt d’un club de modèle que d’un club de marque : la gamme V8 Vedette française au sens large. Que vous soyez possesseur ou simplement amateur de Vedette, le club sera heureux de vous accueillir pour partager notre passion !

ESPRIT DU CLUB Fidèle à ses statuts, le club développe un réel esprit de camaraderie entre ses membres, leurs conjoints et enfants, ces derniers contribuant largement à la vie du club. L’accès de tous est facilité et apprécié quels que soient l’origine, l’âge, la situation familiale et fi nancière. Tous les services sont animés par des membres bénévoles. LES PUBLICATIONS «Chromes et 8 Cylindres» est le bulletin trimestriel de liaison interne. C’est aussi l’unique revue sur les Vedette et l’image du club à l’externe. Il contient des informations sur la vie du club (animations, manifestations, services), les évolutions réglementaires ou sociétales impactant les Vedette, la technique et l’historique des Vedette, ainsi que des récits et anecdotes des membres et des petites annonces. Le «dossier adhérent» est une publication annuelle regroupant la description de l’organisation et des services du club et l’annuaire de ses membres. Le club dispose d’un site Web ouvert au public. LES MANIFESTATIONS Deux sorties nationales sont proposées aux membres chaque année. Chacune regroupe en moyenne une cinquantaine de Vedette sur trois jours pour des visites à caractères technique et culturel. Chaque région organise également deux ou trois regroupements par an. Le club est présent dans toutes les grandes manifestations et expositions liées à la voiture ancienne.

LES SERVICES TECHNIQUES Le club gère et met à disposition de ses membres des pièces détachées d’origine, neuves ou d’occasion. Il fait refabriquer des pièces introuvables nécessaires pour permettre aux Vedette de rouler de façon fi able. Le club met à disposition de ses membres toute la documentation technique d’origine liée à chacun des modèles ainsi que des outils spéciaux nécessaires pour certaines interventions. Il prodigue des conseils pratiques à la demande et édite un petit recueil d’astuces et solutions bien utiles pour la restauration et l’entretien des Vedette. LES AUTRES SERVICES Le club peut conseiller pour tout achat ou vente de Vedette et proposer une évaluation à la demande sur la base de sa propre «cote commerciale» des Vedette. Il peut également apporter une assistance en matière réglementaire, notamment pour l’immatriculation des Vedette. La boutique diff use divers articles siglés Vedette.

La Simca Vedette est une série de véhicules construits et commercialisés dans de multiples déclinaisons par le constructeur français Simca entre 1954 et 1961. Elle est la dernière voiture française de grande série à être équipée d’un moteur V8.

En septembre 1954, Simca rachète Ford France et s’approprie ainsi son usine de Poissy.

Tandis que le groupe Ford, déçu par les résultats de son activité en France, se recentre sur ses filiales en Allemagne de l'Ouest et en Grande-Bretagne, Simca récupère la gamme Vedette millésime 1955, conçue par Ford dans son siège de Dearborn, pour remplacer la première Vedette lancée en 1948.

La nouvelle gamme Vedette est présentée sur le stand Ford et sur le stand Simca au Salon de Paris, en octobre 1954. Elle est produite dès novembre sous la marque Simca après que 2 100 modèles eurent été fabriqués par Ford, à la suite du rachat de l'usine de Poissy par Henri Théodore Pigozzi. Simca n'avait aucune volonté de développer ce modèle et profita seulement de son apparition pour augmenter ses volumes de ventes globaux et surtout, disposer d'un centre de production à Poissy, qui lui permettait de mieux servir ses perspectives d'avenir.

Dès sa sortie et selon un plan de commercialisation bien conçu par l'état major de Ford, la gamme Vedette est divisée en quatre modèles bien distincts dans la gamme équipée du V8 de 2,3 litres (les modèles équipés du moteur V8 3,9 litres ne sont pas remplacés) avec un niveau 1, modèle d'entrée de gamme qui offre un prix d'appel bien positionné (sans volonté de faire des volumes de vente), un niveau 2 qui devait assurer à lui seul le maximum des volumes de cette gamme, un niveau 3 (grand luxe) destiné à compléter l'offre produit vers le haut et un produit niche, la version break (station wagon) :

La Trianon, modèle d’entrée de gamme, dépouillé de manière à lui permettre d'afficher un prix de vente compétitif ;

La Versailles, modèle phare de la gamme se distingue par son équipement de base, sa présentation en deux tons, ses projecteurs antibrouillard, ses feux de recul, ses encadrements de pare-brise et de lunette arrière chromés, ses pneus à flancs blancs ;

La Régence, luxueusement présentée, est reconnaissable à son intérieur particulièrement soigné intégrant une radio, sa peinture bicolore à la présentation spécifique et à ses enjoliveurs de roues à rayons ;

La Marly, version break de la Versailles, un break de luxe équipé d’un hayon arrière en deux parties et disponible à partir de février 1956.

Au Salon de Paris de 1957, la carrosserie de la gamme Vedette est redessinée. Elle reçoit une nouvelle calandre, un pare-brise panoramique (avec retour sur les côtés, un artifice esthétique alors très apprécié aux États-Unis), des petits ailerons à l'arrière et des roues plus grandes pour recevoir des tambours plus importants et contribuer à améliorer le freinage.

Cette série est la dernière à être équipée d'un moteur V8 à soupapes latérales, la cylindrée est de 2 351 cm3 mais avec une puissance de 84 ch SAE1 au régime de 4 800 tr/min (taux de compression légèrement augmenté).

Même si la gamme Vedette s’est désormais affranchie de Ford (le type mines est maintenant clairement du type Simca avec deux lettres : AB), sa nouvelle carrosserie évoque largement les extravagantes productions d’outre-Atlantique dont les lignes inspirent de nombreux constructeurs européens. Ceci n'est pas un hasard car lorsque Simca acheta Ford SAF et ses modèles en cours, le développement ultérieur de cette gamme était déjà prévu par le centre style américain de Dearborn. Simca demanda donc à un styliste européeen (en l'occurrence Luigi Rapi) de personnaliser ce nouveau dessin pour le rendre plus typé Simca et moins internationalement Ford.

La Ford Vedette est une limousine à six glaces latérales présentée par la filiale Ford France (Ford SAF) en octobre 1948. La Vedette concurrence la Citroën Traction Avant 15-Six.

Succédant aux Matford d'avant guerre, la voiture est le premier modèle de Ford SAF.

Équipée d'un moteur V8 à soupapes latérales (les soupapes ne sont pas en haut du moteur ou en tête, il n'y a donc pas de culbuteurs) de 60 ch SAE et basée sur une étude de voiture d'entrée de gamme Mercury de Ford USA non retenue pour le marché américain, elle fut d'abord une limousine à deux volumes.

La Vedette est la première voiture à proposer une suspension avant à roues indépendantes avec des ressorts hélicoïdaux (ressorts en spirale) due à l'ingénieur Earle MacPherson1. Une autre originalité était les portes arrière à ouverture inversée (cette disposition est appelée aujourd'hui « portes antagonistes »).

Pour les modèles 1950, un coach et un cabriolet s'ajoutent jusqu'en 1952 ainsi qu'une boîte de vitesses Cotal en option avec commande manuelle électromagnétique. Les pare-chocs sont inversés (bourrelet en bas). Ceux-ci sont plus longs en mai 1951 tandis que les enjoliveurs de roue sont lisses.

Pour 1952, le coupé de luxe Comète est lancé.

En mai 1952, l'Abeille est une version utilitaire dépouillée de tous chromes avec un hayon arrière en deux parties.

Pour 1953, la Vedette, qui est remaniée, est présentée avec une carrosserie cossue à trois volumes avec coffre séparé. L'ancien pare-brise en deux parties planes, devient bombé en une seule partie et la calandre est nouvelle. En mai, le nom Vedette s'inscrit sur la baguette latérale. Celle-ci se prolonge sur la porte avec l'écusson de la ville de Poissy pour 1954.

En octobre 1953, la marque lance un modèle de haut de gamme (22 CV), la Vedette Vendôme qui bénéficie d'un moteur Mistral de 3,9 litres de 95 ch SAE d'origine Mercury.

La série suivante (Vedette modèles 1955) présentée en septembre 1954 n'a conservé le nom de Ford que durant quelques mois. L'absorption de Ford SAF par Simca en 1954 fit que le nouveau modèle s'appela Simca Vedette série Versailles dès le mois de décembre 1954.

En rachetant Ford SAF en 1954, Simca récupère les usines de Poissy, mais également une toute nouvelle voiture qui lui servira de haut de gamme. En effet, Ford qui commercialisait depuis la libération une Vedette peu alléchante, avait décidé de moderniser son modèle unique. Pour cela, un nouveau véhicule avait été étudié aux Etats Unis, et Simca va le reprendre entièrement.

Produite de 1955 à 1961, elle se déclinera en de nombreuses versions sur la base du moteur V8 Aquilon, mais également en Ariane avec les moteurs 4 cylindres, Flash puis Rush, des Aronde. La gamme Vedette se veut luxueuse et de haut de gamme, jouant sur le fait qu'elle est la seule à pouvoir offrir le couple et l'onctuosité d'un moteur V8 pourtant son prix n'est pas plus élevé que la concurrence semblable à une DS19 ou une Frégate.

A noter que les versions Présidence ont équipées l' Elysée pendant de longues années, De Gaulle se déplaçait alors en Présidence entouré d'une escorte de Chambord noires.

La Simca Vedette est une série de véhicules construits et commercialisés dans de multiples déclinaisons par le constructeur français Simca entre 1954 et 1961. Elle est la dernière voiture française de grande série à être équipée d’un moteur V8.

La Vedette première série : 1954 – 1957, En septembre 1954, Simca rachète Ford France et s’approprie ainsi son usine de Poissy. Tandis que le groupe Ford se recentre sur ses filiales en Allemagne de l'Ouest et en Grande-Bretagne, Simca récupère la gamme Vedette millésime 1955, conçue par Ford dans son siège de Dearborn, pour remplacer la première Vedette lancée en 1948.

La nouvelle gamme Vedette est présentée sur le stand Ford au Salon de Paris, en octobre 1954. Elle est produite dès novembre sous la marque Simca, suite au rachat de l'usine de Poissy par Henri Théodore Pigozzi.

Les modèles dès sa sortie, la gamme Vedette est divisée en quatre modèles bien distincts : La Trianon, modèle d’entrée de gamme, nettement dépouillé, La Régence, luxueusement présentée et remplaçant la Ford Vendôme, elle est reconnaissable à sa peinture bicolore et à ses roues à rayons, La Versailles, à mi-chemin entre la simplicité de la première et le faste de la seconde, elle se distingue par son toit de couleur différente, ses projecteurs antibrouillard et ses encadrements de pare-brise et de lunette arrière chromés, La Marly, version break de la Versailles, un break de luxe équipée d’un hayon arrière en deux parties et disponible à partir de février 1956.

Un seul moteur est proposé, il s’agit du vieux V8 Ford « Aquilon » de 2 351 cm3 à soupapes latérales. Il développe 80 ch SAE à 4 400 tr/min. La principale innovation concerne la structure de la voiture, qui abandonne le châssis séparé pour une carrosserie monocoque bien plus dans l’air du temps. En revanche, les trains roulants et la mécanique restent classiques avec une boîte de vitesses mécanique à trois rapports, la transmission arrière avec un pont rigide et une suspension à ressorts semi-elliptiques longitudinaux, une direction à vis globique et galet de type Gemmer et un freinage sans assistance. Toutefois, la suspension avant est désormais assurée par un moderne système Mac Pherson.

En 1955, la Versailles est vendue 898 000 francs, soit environ 198 000 francs de plus que la Peugeot 403, aux prétentions moins élevées. Très soignée, la Marly s’adresse aux français les plus aisés, pouvant débourser près de 1 200 000 francs pour se l’offrir.

La gamme évoluera les années suivantes : le toit ouvrant et translucide « Vistadome » est disponible en option sur tous les modèles dès 1955, le train avant est amélioré en 1957, millésime où l’on note également l’apparition de nouveaux feux arrière avec catadioptre intégré (sauf sur la Trianon).

En 1957, Simca équipe la caisse de la Trianon avec le moteur 4 cylindres de l'Aronde donnant naissance à la familiale Ariane. À cause du poids de la caisse avec ce moteur trop faible, les performances, accélérations et reprises de ce modèle seront médiocres.

Production : 1955 : 42 349, 1956 : 44 836, 1957 : 17 875, total : 105 060 exemplaires pour la Vedette première série de 1954 - 1957.

La Vedette deuxième série : 1957 – 1961, Au Salon de Paris de 1957, la carrosserie de la gamme Vedette est redessinée. Elle reçoit une nouvelle calandre, un pare-brise panoramique (avec retour sur les côtés, un artifice esthétique alors très apprécié aux États-Unis), des petits ailerons à l'arrière et des roues plus grandes pour améliorer le freinage.

Cette série est la dernière à être équipée d'un moteur V8 à soupapes latérales, la cylindrée est de 2 351 cm3 mais avec une puissance de 84 ch SAE. Même si la gamme Vedette s’est désormais affranchie de Ford, sa nouvelle carrosserie évoque largement les extravagantes productions d’outre-Atlantique dont les lignes inspirent de nombreux constructeurs européens.

Les modèles : La Trianon disparaît et devient l'Ariane 8, la Beaulieu remplace la Versailles, la Chambord et la Régence. Le break Marly conserve son nom et adopte seulement la nouvelle face avant des berlines. Tout en haut de la gamme, la très élitiste Présidence fait son apparition.

Pratiquement seule dans sa catégorie (ses seules vraies concurrentes sont bientôt les breaks Renault Frégate Manoir et Citroën ID à seulement 4 cylindres, la Marly continue de séduire quelques clients français, malgré son prix élitiste de 1 208 000 francs1 en 1957.

Enfin, l’austère mais prestigieuse Présidence, mesurant 15 cm de plus que les berlines « classiques », se veut « le nec plus ultra » de la firme de Poissy. Peinte uniquement en noir, elle séduira notamment le Général de Gaulle, qui aura le droit à une version décapotable nommée « Présidentielle ». Extérieurement, elle était reconnaissable au premier coup d’œil grâce à sa roue de secours logée sous une housse métallique à l’arrière du coffre. En 1958, elle était affichée à 1 624 850 francs.

Pénalisée par l’apparition de la révolutionnaire Citroën DS en 1955, et peu aidée par la politique de rationnement de l’essence décidée par le gouvernement français en novembre 1956, la production de la Vedette s’effondre à la fin des années 1950 : 15 966 exemplaires trouvent preneur en 1959, contre près de 45 000 trois ans auparavant.

Au début des années 1960, la pérennité de Simca est assurée par les populaires Aronde et Ariane, tandis que la future berline 1000 est imminente. De plus, le constructeur n’arrive pas à enrayer la chute des ventes de Vedette. La production de la dernière voiture française de grande série à moteur V8 prend fin au début de l’été 1961, laissant le haut de gamme français aux Citroën DS et Peugeot 404. Les dernières Vedette sont écoulées en 1962.

La gamme Vedette aura néanmoins une descendante au Brésil, où la filiale locale de Simca produira jusqu’en 1969 une Simca Esplanada équipée du vieux V8 « Aquilon ».

Production : 1958 : 28 142, 1959 : 15 966, 1960 : 13 914, 1961 : 3 814, total : 61 836 exemplaires pour la Vedette deuxième série de 1957 - 1961.

Histoire Chronologique de l'ancienne marque automobile " Simca ", France 1935 - 1980.

Sur 204 000 véhicules produits en France en 1936, 7 300 environ étaient d'une nouvelle marque qui s'était insérée depuis peu dans les fabriques d'automobiles françaises.

Il s'agissait de la Simca, Société Industrielle de Mécanique et de CArrosserie automobile, petite entreprise née à Nanterre dans l'ancien établissement de la Société Donnet-Zédel qui avait été dissoute.

La première année d"activité représentait, avec plus de 7 000 voitures produites, un résultat remarquable.

En 1938, Simca avait déjà triplé sa production, après la guerre, elle fut l'une des premières à se relever de la catastrophe du conflit.

Dans les années soixante, elle s'était déjà solidement implantée sur le marché international.

Dans les années soixante-dix enfin, après être entrée dans le groupe américain Chrysler, elle a peut-être été l'entreprise française qui s'est le moins ressentie de la crise du secteur automobile.

L'artisan de ce succès était un Italien, Henri Pigozzi.

Venu encore jeune en France, il commença à récupérer des carcasses de vieilles automobiles et à les expédier à Turin pour réalimenter en matériaux ferreux les fonderies de Fiat.

A la fin de 1934, l'ancien ferrailleur, en passant par hasard sur la route qui va de Paris à Saint- Germain, remarque une affiche qui annonçait la vente de l'ancienne usine Donnet-Zédel.

Pigozzi fit l'acquisition des installations. Peu après, il fonda la société Simca.

L'activité de l'établissement de Nanterre débuta en 1935 et, pendant une courte période, elle fut limitée au montage de la Fiat Balilla, vendue sous la marque Fiat France.

En avril, la première Simca-Fiat sortait, fidèle réplique de la 500 Topolino.

En 1937, Pigozzi fut en mesure de présenter un nouveau modèle, toujours réalisé sur la base des projets Fiat et plus précisément sur ceux de la 508 C/1100. La marque de cette voiture ne fut plus Simca-Fiat, mais simplement Simca.

A la fin de 1939, le bilan, bien que sommaire, des cinq premières années d'activité, se montra essentiellement positif : Simca, en effet, avait sorti presque 70000 voitures et, grâce à la gestion avisée de Pigozzi, sa situation mancière était bonne.

Le déclenchement du conflit marqua pratiquement la fin du premier cycle de production de Simca, dont l'activité fut réduite à partir de 1940.

Le conflit terminé, la fabrique de Nanterre recommença à fonctionner régulièrement dés 1946, année où elle réussit à produire plus de 8000 voitures.

C'étaient les deux modèles d'avant-guerre, mais Pigozzi était déjà en train de concevoir une voiture qu'il construirait sans l'aide de Fiat.

La collaboration avec l'Italie continua cependant encore pendant quelques années et, en 1949, aboutit à la naissance de la Simca-Six, version française de la Topolino C.

Pendant ce temps, la cadence de production de la Simca-Huit était en augmentation constante (26 258 exemplaires en 1950).

Mais la nouvelle voiture qu'avait voulue Pigozzi était presque prête, entièrement française, celle-ci, et Simca allait atteindre avec elle l'autonomie complète de ses projets.

En effet, au printemps de 1951, la Simca-Neuf apparut, une 4-cylindres de 1221 cm3 à carrosserie portante à quatre portes, d'une ligne moderne et plaisante.

La dénomination choisie pour cette voiture fut « Aronde », forme archaïque et poétique du mot « hirondelle ».

En 1953, un exemplaire strictement de série, prélevé au hasard sur un stock de voitures prêtes à la livraison, tourna sans interruption sur la piste de Montlhéry pendant quarante jours et quarante nuits, couvrant 100000 km à une moyenne supérieure à 100 km/h.

L'année suivante, un exploit analogue fut accompli par une autre Aronde dans les rues de Paris : 100 000 km sans le moindre ennui.

A la fin de 1961, la 1000 aivait fait son apparition, une petite voiture à quatre portes, de ligne compacte, avec moteur arrière à quatre cylindres de 944 cm3.

Ce modèle fut suivi en 1963 des nouvelles berlines de 1300 et 1500 cm3, voitures de classe moyenne qui allaient remplacer l'Aronde.

Le ler juillet 1970, la raison sociale de la Société des automobiles Simca devint Chrysler France.

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"The Hardest Hit" March & Parliamentary Lobby - 11.05.2011

Part (1) The Prelude to the March

Between 8,000 and 10,000 disabled people with long-term conditions, their families, carers and many trade union supporters assembled on London's Victoria Embankment to protest against the punitive cuts to welfare spending implimented by David Cameron's "Caring Conservatives", which are specifically aimed at the sick and the disabled. Using French IT company ATOS Origin to do the government's dirtiest work, the disabled are being summoned to "Work Capability Assessments" at ATOS Regional offices up and down the country, and are then subjected to a twenty minute examination by often medically unqualified staff who ask a series of questions and then try fill in tick boxes on their completely inflexible computerised forms, which are inadequate for coping with the very serious complexities which go with long-term disabilities. These accumulated scores then form that disabled person's Work Capability score. Input from Doctors, Carers and Senior Consultants is not allowed to be considered when going through this sham exercise designed to force people off Disablity benefits and mobility allowances - crucial to many working disabled people, many of whom have had to stop work because they cannot get there any more thanks to this incompetent process. Instead they become trapped in their homes, unable to shop for themselves or socialise.

The ATOS assessors are paid a bounty of around £70 for every person they instruct the Department of Work and Pensions to be thrown off their benefits, and those assessors with medical qualifications are instructed by the government when they sign contracts to do assessment work with ATOS that the normal medical code of conduct regarding their innate responsibility for the well-being of the patient is waived!

Since the introduction of this punitive and intensely cruel process several disabled people have committed suicide, having had their support ripped away from them, with many disabled people becoming homeless. There are also many instances where people with terminal illnesses have been told they are fit for work, their benefits stopped, and have died within weeks in absolute abject misery because the State has treated them monstrously.

Many previously independent disabled people in their own homes have had to be institutionalised in homes run by private comanies who are egging the government forward because they make a huge profit from running these homes. The sickest irony is that it costs around £10,000 per year to keep a disabled person living in their own home, independent and contributing to society, yet it costs the taxpayer between £30/40,000 to put them in a care home where they may be neglected or even worse abused.

Assaults and threats against the disabled has increased sharply over the last year as a direct result of the government's insulting press campaigns which have painted the sick and disabled as workshy scroungers. Nothing could be further from the truth, but as long as those in power have the ability to behave so appallingly towards the very weakest and most vulnerable members of our society just to score cheap political points, then that is what an increasing number of people in this country want to believe.

In December of last year Iain Duncan Smith, the minister for Work and Pensions, said of the disabled in Rupert Murcoch's Sun Newspaper interview:

"It embarrasses me. I think this is the greatest country on earth.

“They have become conditioned to be users of services, not providers of money. This is a huge part of the reason we have this massive deficit. We have had to borrow vast sums of money. We went on this inflated spending spree."

Ever since that statement by Iain Duncan Smith the Sun, the Daily Express and the Telegraph have run continual lie-filled campaigns in their pages stating that around 75% of the disabled are fully able to work but because they are little more than complaining parasites who just want to sit at home enjoying themselves at "Our" expense. The rapid consequence of this disgusting, immoral slur which could be easily mistaken for the propaganda campaigns of the National Socialist Party in pre-war Germany.

Because the government has picked on the Disabled first, they are getting away with it. Most people in this country are unable to even begin to understand what it is like living with a severe disability. Most people in this country are too stupid and dull to have the intelligence to question what they are being told to think by the right-wing press who serve the Global Capitalists hiding 'round the curtain waiting to get the nod to start taking over huge parts of our National Health Service using the appalling American model which is all about profit and not about the patient's actual needs.

This is what David Cameron has planned for Great Britain, and he's starting with the disabled because disability makes most people uncomfortable because they're so self-obsessed and shallow that human empathy is too rich an emotion for them to grasp. Instead they are turning against the disabled, and talking to many disabled people it is very clear that a lot of them are now living in a climate of fear, hounded by bullies in their local communities, taunted in the streets, often physically abused or spat at, their homes broken into, their meagre possessions stolen.

And all this human misery because David Cameron's Conservatives will not punish the banks and hedge funds which caused the recession which has wrecked our economy, and he will not close down the corporate tax loopholes, shut down the tax havens and start throwing corrupt, greedy financiers in prison where they belong. All this human pain because Conservatives think that the State should stop providing services cheaply and reasonably efficiently, and instead services should be run by completely unaccountable private comanies whose only masters are the shareholders. This is all about profit, nothing else. profit at the expense of human pain and fear.

On appeal following an ATOS assessment around 70% of people win their cases, proving how incompetent ATOS' system is, but the cruellest part is that an appeal can take a year, during which that disabled person's mental and physical health has deteriorated. Many are driven to desperation and suicidal thinking. The government is just about to make it much, much harder to appeal against an ATOS decision by making it impossible to get any form of Legal Aid which would pay for a solicitor armed with the Law to represent you. It seems unbelievably wicked and cruel to me.

All photos © 2011 Pete Riches

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Assassin's Creed® Origins

"Imperial amber ale brewed with luscious pomegranate juice"

8% abv

www.shmaltz.com/origin.html

Origin: Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

Text: Sugar beets

57.7 million tons (1960)

98-108 million tons (1980)

The Volga-Vyatka Economic Council

Year: 1964

Gettysburg.

The Civil War from 1861-64 was the most tragic and momentous event in American history. It had its origins in the economic and agricultural differences between the North and the South which were exacerbated by different views about the morality of black slavery. Once Abraham Lincoln (a Republican) was elected in November 1860 as the next President to be inaugurated in February 1861 the fears of the South could no longer be allayed by compromise and logical thinking. South Carolina, always the most firebrand and radical of the Southern states seceded almost immediately. So technically the Civil War was about secession and whether the constitution gave any state the right to secede rather than it being about slavery. But the expansion (not the mere existence) of slavery was the issue behind secession. Sth Carolina was joined by other southern states and they quickly formed the confederacy with Jefferson Davis as President. Lincoln wanted to avoid war. He chose not to be the aggressor but as an able lawyer and great humanist he warned that he would defend the property of the US. When the Confederates (Grey Coats or Rebels) fired on Fort Sumner in the harbour of Charleston, the capital of South Carolina in April 1861 the war began. The north had the advantage of a much bigger population, better rail system, almost all of the industry in America, and money, but they struggled for four years to win the war. Many of the battles were in the Border States near Washington DC where the southern state of Virginia basically abuts the northern states of Pennsylvania and Maryland. (But Maryland really had no choice but to join with the north as it was placed under military control by Lincoln. After all the capital, Washington DC is almost surrounded by Maryland.) One of the great battles that occurred in this region was the Battle of Gettysburg.

Despite the advantages of the North it lost most of the battles in the first couple of years of the Civil War. The Yankees could not defeat the great southern General Robert E Lee. That is why Lincoln kept changing his generals. The turning point was probably the Battle of Gettysburg which raged from 1-4th July 1863. General Meade led the Union forces in their bloody defeat of the Confederates under Lee at Gettysburg. Around 163,000 men faced each other in the battles. At the end of the last day, Confederate causalities - dead, wounded and missing were 28,000 (out of 75,000 troops) and the Union casualties were 23,000 (out of 88,000 troops. ) After the battle General Lee had to retreat to the South quickly and leave the Confederate dead on the battle field. These were incredibly high death tolls for any battle. Is it any wonder the Americans still feel so deeply about the Civil War? By the end of the Civil War, over 620,000 men had been killed and nearly 300,000 wounded- many of them maimed for the rest of their lives: - a total of almost 1 million men. The death toll from the Civil War was greater than the combined US toll for World Wars One and Two. A total of16.47% of all troops were killed in the Civil War- a very high proportion. This compares badly with American involvement in say World War One- 2.46% of troops killed, or World War Two- 2.52% of troops killed. The Civil War was a huge tragedy.

After the battle Lincoln went to dedicate a memorial to the men who had lost their lives in this great battle in November of 1863. The Gettysburg Address is a remarkably short speech, for a politician, and is considered by many to be one of the finest speeches in the English language. In just over two minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union, but as "a new birth of freedom" that would bring true equality to all of its citizens, and that would also create a unified nation in which states' rights were no longer dominant.

At Gettysburg we will see battlefield, memorials and the interpretive centre with its dioramas and displays. Below is a map of the town and surrounding battlefields and memorials.

Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865. The Republican Party emerged in American in 1854 to oppose the EXPANSION of slavery into the new western territories. In the 1858 congressional elections Lincoln made his most famous statement:

“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other."

Four nominees stood to be the Republican candidate for the 1860 Presidential election and Lincoln was chosen as the Republican candidate. He won the election and became the first anti slavery president from one section (the North) party to win an election. During the campaign the Democrat Party split into a northern and southern democrat parties with different candidates. Lincoln kept a low profile after the election and because of assassination threats and safety concerns in Baltimore he was secretly taken to Washington DC in disguise on 23 February 1861 to be inaugurated as President on 4th March. Once the November election results were known, Sth Carolina and then other southern states seceded. Lincoln’s training as a small town lawyer held him in good stead as president. He studied the constitution closely and developed his legalistic arguments. The South had no right to secede. The constitution was a binding contract and no state could unilaterally secede. He would not attack the South but he would defend the property of the US in the rebelling (seceding) Southern states and the posts would be delivered. Historians argue that Lincoln chose to avoid war, and not be the aggressor, but the South had little room for manoeuvring out of war. The South began the war at Fort Sumter. Despite Lincoln’s expert handling of the military aspects of the war, his choice of generals and his handling of the affairs of state, he was unpopular with many Republicans as he was not radical enough. Lincoln stood as an independent candidate for the US presidential elections of 1864 and won, this time not as a Republican but as the leader for the National Union Party. Perhaps Lincoln’s most memorable act was the Emancipation Proclamation of 1st January 1863 which set slaves free in the rebelling states. (It required a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery in all states.) This act brought former slaves into the War in both the North and South; it bought strong alliances with European powers, especially France and England who could not support a pro-slavery nation ( the Confederacy had tried to get France’s financial backing) ; and it turned the war from a war about secession and constitutional issues into a war about slavery. Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth 5 days after General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court House on 9 April 1865 thus ending the Civil War.

Origin and date.

After leaving the Vertical Integration Facility, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is on its way to Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The launch vehicle will boost NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. This will be the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid, retrieve at least two ounces of surface material and return it to Earth for study. The asteroid, Bennu, may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and organic molecules found on Earth. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

NASA image use policy.

Wilkins the Bakers origins lay in the early 1900s.

F Wilkins started out as a franchise holder for the Isaac and Co Dairy Company's bakery division and by 1911 had taken over Fippard and Sons bakery and shop at 192 Old Christchurch Rd on the corner of Glen Fern Rd [ now Pizza Express ].

By the early 1930s Wilkins had a string of local shops and a purpose built bakery at 62 Malmesbury Park Rd on the site of a former laundry.

By 1935 the business had been purchased by a Canadian businessman named W Garfield Weston who had taken over his father's bakery business and who was now expanding into Britain.

By 1937 he had acquired 15 bakery plants across the country which had been unified as 'Allied Bakeries', mass producing bread in large, modern baking factories.

Weston later founded Associated British Foods, incorporating a whole range of brands across the world and many household names in Britain including Ryvita who's main factory is in Poole.

The Wilkins factory at Malmesbury Park Rd was extended at various times over the years and by the 1970s was producing tens of thousands of loaves a day from two large production plants situated on the top floor of the main factory. The lines ran 24 hours a day, only closing for maintenance at 6am on Saturday morning before starting up again frst thing Sunday morning.

The loaves were sent via a conveyor system to the ground floor where they were sliced, bagged and despatched. Also on the ground floor was a confectionary department that produced bread rolls, doughnuts, sausage rolls, currant buns and other goods for the network of local shops that they still ran across Bournemouth, and for other customers.

They regularly produced over 2 million hot cross buns for the Easter market and also had a specialist cake decorating department that made and decorated cakes to order.

As well as producing for their own shops Wilkins also mass produced bread under various Allied Bakeries brands such as Sunblest, Allinson, Mighty White, Hi Bran, Betabake, Slimcea, Kingsmill and Hovis as well as supplying a lot of the major supermarkets.

The company employed up to 250 people at any one time across in house departments such as baking, machine operating, hygiene, drivers, maintenance engineers, mechanics, office staff and building maintenance, with many hundreds, and probably thousands, being employed over the years.

Until the early 1980s wages were still paid in cash with the money being delivered to site by an armoured van with each individual wage packet being made up in the main office block. An announcement was made over the tanoy for employees to remain inside the factory whilst the wages were being delivered. From 1983 wages began to be paid directly into employees bank accounts.

In the late 1980s the confectionary department closed along with the shops, and in 1994 it was announced that the bakery was to close down in two phases with production being transferred to large super bakeries in the London area. Production finally ceased with a second wave of redundancies in 1995.

The site remained as a distribution centre until 2007 with bread being delivered by lorry from other bakeries with the depot moving to the Ferndown Industrial Estate where it still operates.

The Malmesbury Park Rd premises were demolished in 2007 and replaced over the following 18 months by The Granary housing development that resulted in the creation of Chelsea Gardens and Wilkins Gardens.

Image 29 of 99.

The Brotherhood of Blackheads is an association of local unmarried merchants, ship owners, and foreigners that was active in Livonia (present-day Estonia and Latvia) from the mid-14th century till 1940 but still remains active in present day Hamburg.

The Brotherhood of Blackheads was founded as a military organization but the non-military aspects of the association gradually became more pronounced until the Brotherhood became a predominantly social organization after the end of the Great Northern War.

The brotherhood traces its origin to a group of foreign merchants who, according to the legend, had participated in the defense of Reval (present-day Tallinn in Estonia) during the St. George's Night Uprising between 1343 and 1345 when the indigenous population of Estonia unsuccessfully tried to exterminate all foreigners and eradicate Christianity from Estonia.

The earliest documented mention of the Brotherhood comes in an agreement with the Tallinn Dominican Monastery from 28 March 1400 that confirms the Blackheads' ownership of all the sacred church vessels that they had deposited in the St. Catherine's Church of the Dominicans. In the same agreement the Blackheads commit themselves to decorating and lighting the altar of St. Mary that the brotherhood had commissioned for the church, and the Dominicans in their turn undertake to hold services in front of this altar to bless the souls of the Blackheads.

On 12 September 1407, the Tallinn City Council ratified the statutes of the Brotherhood, also known as the Great Rights. The statutes of the Brotherhood in Riga date back to 1416.

According to the Great Rights in Tallinn, the Brotherhood of Blackheads committed itself to defending the city from any enemy invasion.

Among other duties, the Brotherhood provided the city with a cavalry detachment. The Blackhead cavalrymen patrolled the city wall and six of them made rounds inside the wall every evening after the city gates were locked at sunset.

In 1526 the Brotherhood presented the city council of Tallinn with 8 rock-hurling machines, 20 cannon-carriages, and 66 small-caliber guns. Money was donated for making cannons for Narva, and it was stipulated that the Blackheads' coat of arms be on all the guns.

During the 25-year-long Livonian War (1558-1583), members of the Brotherhood of Blackheads in Tallinn participated in many battles and successfully helped to defend the city against the Russians who unsuccessfully besieged Tallinn in 1570–1571 and again in 1577.

After the end of the Great Northern War of 1700-1721, Livonia became part of the Russian Empire.

The Hanseatic towns in Livonia lost much of the importance that they had enjoyed during the Middle Ages and the Brotherhood of Blackheads gradually transformed from a military society to a predominantly social organization. Although the chivalric code of honor the Brotherhood subscribed to and the rules governing close combat were mostly preserved, the military importance of Blackheads gradually diminished. However, in Tallinn the cavalry detachment with its own uniform survived until 1887.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the local brotherhoods of Blackheads were important as social organizations that sponsored social events, such as parties and concerts, and collected objects of fine art.

In Tallinn and Riga, the houses of the Brotherhood, along with the medieval traditions still practiced in them, became important cultural and social centers for social elites.

In 1895, the Brotherhood of Blackheads in Tallinn was formally reconstituted into the Blackheads Club.

The brotherhoods in Tallinn and Riga carried on in independent Estonia and Latvia until the beginning of the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States in 1940, when the occupation authorities dissolved the Brotherhood.

Most of the members were able to flee to Germany, where they tried to continue their traditions. In 1961 the Brotherhood of Blackheads was officially registered in Hamburg, where it survives to this day.

Originally the membership of the Brotherhood of Blackheads in Tallinn included mostly merchants who were not yet eligible for the membership in the Great Guild: merchants who were legally not independent or who had no established business in Tallinn, local unmarried merchants, and foreign merchants.

The Brotherhood was renting the property at 24-26 Pikk Street, Tallinn, already in 1406. In 1531, the Blackheads acquired the building from the town councilor Johann Viant and his wife Kerstine Bretholt (Breitholtz) and rebuilt it in the Renaissance style of the period.

It remained in the possession of the Blackheads until the summer of 1940 when the Soviet Union occupied and annexed Estonia.

An equally magnificent House of Blackheads in Riga that had been sold to the Blackheads in 1713 was destroyed on 28 June 1941 when the German army conquered Riga, and the burnt out walls were demolished by the Soviets in 1948. The Blackheads' House in Riga was reconstructed between 1995 and 2000.

The coat of arms of the Brotherhood of Blackheads

The exact origin of the term blackhead is unknown. The patron saint of the Brotherhood of Blackheads is the black Egyptian Christian Saint Moritz whose head is also depicted on the Brotherhood's coat of arms.

Whether the patron saint was chosen because of the name, or whether the saint precedes the name remains unclear.

The origin and the dual nature of the Brotherhood of Blackheads as a military organization and a commercial association is unique in European history.

The military aspect of the Brotherhood can be attributed to its founding during the days of the last great anti-Christian revolt of the indigenous people of Northern Europe in the wake of the Northern Crusades. The commercial aspect of the Brotherhood reflects its origin in the early days of the Hanseatic League that marked the beginning of a new era, less military and more commerce oriented, in Northern Europe.

Some traditions of the Blackheads survive in the customs of Baltic-German Corps and Estonian and Latvian student corporations.

As a rule, most corporations accept new members twice a year. Ceremonial consumption of alcohol, elaborate drinking vessels, personal code of honor, and strict rules governing the relationship between members, including institutionalized fines and punishments, resemble in many respects the traditions of the Blackheads.

The military aspect of the Brotherhood survives in the ceremonial use of specialized swords. In the regional structure of the Estonian Defence League, corporation members in the former Blackhead centers Tallinn and Tartu maintain their own military malevkonds (major subunits of malevs) whose main duty is the defence of their respective cities against possible enemy invasion.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotherhood_of_Blackheads#Symbols

www.bwthornton.co.uk

Four miles north of Cirencester, the ancient village of North Cerney occupies the steep valley of the River Churn, the church and the old rectory form an attractive group on the western slope high above the river, while the village cascades down the opposite side beyond the main Cirencester to Cheltenham road. Sheep are allowed to graze in the churchyard in the summertime and can often be seen dozing in the shade of the many table tombs.

All Saints North Cerney is one of the most interesting churches in the Cotswolds, wonderfully furnished at the expense of William Iveson Croome (1891-1967) and full of rare medieval carvings and stained glass. Possibly the third church to have occupied this lofty site, archaeological evidence found when installing a new heating system revealed the foundations of a smaller earlier building. The Saxon origin of these fragmentary remains was given credence when a pre-conquest crucifix, part of an early reredos, was found during further works in the graveyard, now set in the splay of a window in the chancel. A Norman church was built in the 12th century represented by the present nave, the base of the west tower and half the length of the chancel. Liturgical changes in the 13th century increased the role of the chancel in celebration of the Mass and here as elsewhere the chancel was lengthened. The original altar is a rare survival hidden from Reformation iconoclasts under the floor of the Lady chapel and only discovered during alterations in 1912.

Much of the present church rose from the ashes of a fire that caused much damage sometime between 1450 and 1460, the Norman roof was beyond repair and the upper stages of the tower bore the brunt of the flames as they took hold of the building. Indeed the effects of the fire returned to haunt present generations of parishioners as substantial funds had to be raised to stabilise the tower which had begun to crack. After the fire, the rector, William Whitchurch undertook the restoration, rebuilding the north wall with large Perpendicular windows, only the one at the west end survives. A window commemorating Whitchurch was moved when the north transept was built and inserted in its new north wall, a Latin inscription reads "Pray for the soul of William Whitchurch".

Sometime between 1461 and 1465 the Norman south wall was pierced and a Lady Chapel was constructed giving the church a cruciform plan. The chapel can be dated by its east window which includes the Yorkist symbol of the radiant sun. Prominent among the chapel's furnishings are three 15th century carved figures, St Martin cutting his cloak to give half to a beggar, the Virgin Mary and St Urban holding a bunch of grapes, who also wears the tiara usually associated with Urban the Great. A passage squint leads from the west wall of the transept to the nave. The Lady Chapel screen was designed by F.C. Eden and carved by Laurence Turner in 1913, the St George above is by Giorgio Maurus 1920.

Late in the 15th century the north transept was replaced by a chapel dedicated to St Catherine, patron saint of wool merchants. The 16th century altar served the church until the recovery of the medieval mensa in 1912. A vestment press by F.C. Eden occupies the south wall, he also designed the altar frontal and reredos. The east window commemorates the curate who succeeded William Whitchurch and bears the Latin inscription "Pray for the soul of John Bicot", he is seen praying beneath the crucified Christ. However at some stage the stained glass was re leaded with the painted surface outermost and the decoration has suffered as a result. The north transept has a ceiled wagon roof and a curving squint leads to the chancel.

The chancel was lengthened in the 13th century. The altar frontal is made from material woven for Chartres Cathedral before the First World War. The mensa with its consecration crosses is supported on the original medieval stones though a modern frame bears the considerable weight. The attractive reredos is the work of architect F.C. Eden responsible for much of the 20th century work in the church. Robert Broad carved the communion rails from Norway oak in 1736. The stepped east window is by Waller 1878 and bears the legend 'God is Love' and has stained glass by Hardman.

The Perpendicular nave roof has an interesting collection of carved bosses at its eastern end. The roof rests on large carved corbels, those on the north side are thought to depict the reigning monarch Henry VI, William Whitchurch and the Lord of the manor, the Duke of Buckingham with a ducal coronet and moustaches. The church was lit by candles until 25 years ago and several 17th century Flemish brass candelabra survive. Unfortunately the original Queen Anne arms was stolen but the insurance money was used to make a replacement bearing the present Queen's Royal Coat Of Arms. The pulpit of c1480 is ornamented with lilies and was carved from a single block of stone possibly by carvers from Burford, the pedestal is slightly later. The eagle lectern is of similar date and is made of Flemish brass with a Spanish steel pedestal, it was found in the Marine stores at Gloucester docks. Old pew ends have been used to construct a reading desk, one of the panels has an inscription WC 1631, William Cherrington was churchwarden at this time. In 1870 an organ chamber was created in the north wall of the nave, accessed by stairs from the Catherine chapel, part of F.S. Waller & Son's restoration. The organ is richly decorated by Dykes Bower and William Butchart of Westminster Abbey. Above the east end of the nave is a rood loft designed by F.C. Eden and carved by William Smith in the village, using oak from nearby Rendcomb. John and Mary were carved at this time but the central figure of Christ is Italian c1600 found when the churchwarden William Croome fell over its packing case in an antique shop in northern Italy and bought for £10. F.C. Eden designed several stained glass windows including the figure of St Nicholas in the south nave window and the south window of the south chapel which has the arms of the owners of North Cerney House through the ages. The nave has a deep west gallery that obscures the double chamfered C13-C14 tower arch. The 15th century octagonal font has a 18th century cover.

The tower has two lower stages of Norman work with original north and south windows and a clasping north-west buttress of the same date. The west window is 16th century, the bell-stage has west and east windows c1200. The right jamb of the south tower door bears a scratch dial.

The church has a Norman south porch with a carved tympanum, the door is 15th century and has its original closing ring. On the outside of the south wall of the south transept you will find the incised figure of a manticora which has a human head and arms, the body of a lion and a scorpion's tail. Another manticora is carved at the base of the tower apparently the work of the same 'artist'. On the steep slope above the church is a churchyard cross of 14th date, recently restored. On the outside of the tower the roof-line of the original Norman roof is clearly visible. A ring of six bells include four by Abraham Rudhall I, 1714, one by John Rudhall 1820 and a treble by Warner, 1863. Lychgate 1910 by FC Eden.

www.bwthornton.co.uk

El Valle de Ordesa es uno de los valles más espectaculares y únicos de toda Europa, este valle originó la creación del Parque nacional de Ordesa el 16 de agosto de 1918. Años más tarde, en 1982, sería ampliado para crear el Parque nacional de Ordesa y Monte Perdido incluyendo el macizo de Monte Perdido, el Cañón de Añisclo, las Gargantas de Escuaín y la cabecera del Valle de Pineta.

En sentido amplio, el Valle de Ordesa incluye una amplia zona de pequeños valles y barrancos, altiplanicies y picos (muchos de más de 3000 m de altura), cuyos límites serían al Norte la cresta Monte Perdido-Mondarruego, que sirve de frontera con Francia en gran parte, al Sur la cresta Sierra Custodia-Acuta y al Oeste la confluencia con la cabecera del Valle del Ara o valle de Bujaruelo. Todo este conjunto conforma una cuenca fluvial, que a través de valles secundarios y cascadas, desemboca en el <bValle de Ordesa</bpropiamente dicho, por cuyo fondo discurre el río Arazas.

En las zonas altas destaca una parte de la cresta Norte, desde el Monte Perdido (3355 m) hasta los Gabietos (3034 m), toda una sucesión de picos de más de 3000 m y en la que se abre una impresionante grieta, la Brecha de Rolando, paso "natural" entre Francia y España y que según la leyenda fue abierta por un golpe de la espada de Rolando (cómo si no explicar tal fenómeno de la naturaleza). Un poco al Sur de la Brecha se encuentra la Gruta de Casteret, cuyo interior está en gran parte helado, con columnas y cascadas de hielo.Actualmente esta cerrada al publico, y para entrar necesitas permiso del parque.

La vertiente Norte va descendiendo en una sucesión de circos y valles glaciares, con cascadas impresionantes, entre las que destaca el Circo y cascada de Cotatuero, en cuya travesía se encuentran las famosas clavijas de Cotatuero, unas simples barras metálicas clavadas en una pared vertical de paso obligado y no aptas para personas que sufran de vértigo.

El Valle de Ordesa propiamente dicho es un espectacular valle glaciar, con una marcada forma de "U", situado al Suroeste del Macizo del Monte Perdido, por cuyo fondo el río Arazas va descendiendo en una sucesión de bellas cascadas. Desde la que inicia el valle, en el Circo de Soaso, conocida como la Cola de Caballo y que se abre en un abanico blanco que se desliza roca abajo, pasando por las Gradas de Soaso, una sucesión de múltiples cascadas escalonadas, hasta las cascadas del Estrecho y la Cueva, enormes saltos de agua que han labrado toboganes zigzageantes en la roca caliza.

En las paredes verticales del valle, producidas por la diferente dureza de las capas rocosas puestas al descubierto por la acción del antiguo glaciar, se abren varias Fajas, pequeñas cornisas horizontales que permiten recorrer el valle en altura por vertiginosas y estrechas sendas. De ellas destacan la Senda de Cazadores, que llega a tener 600 m de desnivel respecto al fondo y que permite recorrer a vista de pájaro prácticamente todo el valle por su vertiente Sur, y la Faja de las Flores,1 más alta y vertiginosa en la vertiente Norte.

takeshiyamada.weebly.com/

The Sea Rabbit (Monafluffchus americanus) of Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York – This unique sea-dwelling rabbit, which is actually a close relative of the sea lion, was officially discovered and investigated by Henry Hudson when he first visited this land to colonize the area by order of the Dutch government. It was named New Amsterdam -- today’s New York City. This island was named after he saw the beach covered with strange swimming wild rabbits. The word “Coney Island” means “wild rabbit island” in Dutch (originally Conyne Eylandt, or Konijneneiland in modern Dutch spelling). Sea rabbits were also referred mermaid rabbit, merrabbit, rabbit fish or seal rabbit in the natural history documents in the 17th century. The current conservation status, or risk of extinction, of the sea rabbit is Extinct in the Wild.

This website features two species of sea rabbits, which have been taken care of by Dr. Takeshi Yamada (山田武司) at the Coney Island Sea Rabbit Repopulation Center, which is a part of the Marine biology department of the Coney Island University in Brooklyn, New York. They are – Coney Island Sea Rabbit (Monafluffchus americanus) called “Seara” and Coney Island Tiger-striped Sea Rabbit (Monafluffchus konjinicus) called “Stripes”.

The photographs and videos featured in this website chronicle adventures of the Coney Island sea rabbits and the world as seen by them. This article also documented efforts of Dr. Takeshi Yamada for bringing back the nearly extinct sea rabbits to Coney Island in the City of New York and beyond. Dr. Yamada produced a series of public lectures, workshops, original public live interactive fine art performances and fine art exhibitions about sea rabbits at a variety of occasions and institutions in the City of New York and beyond. Dr. Yamada is an internationally active educator, book author, wildlife conservationist and high profile artist, who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

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Sea Rabbit

Other Common Names: Coney Island Sea Rabbit, Beach Rabbit, Seal Rabbit, mer-rabbit, merrabbit, Atlantic Sea Rabbit.

Latin Name: Monafluffchus americanus

Origin: Atlantic coast of the United States

Description of the specimen: In the early 17th century’s European fur craze drove the fleet of Dutch ships to the eastern costal area of America. Then Holland was the center of the world just like the Italy was in the previous century. New York City was once called New Amsterdam when Dutch merchants landed and established colonies. Among them, Henry Hudson is probably the most recognized individual in the history of New York City today. “This small island is inhabited by two major creatures which we do not have in our homeland. The one creature is a large arthropod made of three body segments: the frontal segment resembles a horseshoe, the middle segment resembles a spiny crab and its tail resembles a sharp sword. Although they gather beaches here in great numbers, they are not edible due to their extremely offensive odor. Another creature which is abundant here, has the head of wild rabbit. This animal of great swimming ability has frontal legs resemble the webbed feet of a duck. The bottom half of the body resembles that of a seal. This docile rabbit of the sea is easy to catch as it does not fear people. The larger male sea rabbits control harems of 20 to 25 females. The meat of the sea rabbit is very tender and tasty.” This is what Hadson wrote in his personal journal in 1609 about the horseshoe crab and the sea rabbit in today’s Coney Island area of Brooklyn, New York. Sadly, just like the Dodo bird and the Thylacine, the sea rabbit was driven to extinction by the European settlers’ greed. When Dutch merchants and traders arrived here, sea rabbits were one of the first animals they hunted down to bring their furs to homeland to satisfy the fur craze of the time. To increase the shipment volume of furs of sea rabbit and beavers from New Amsterdam, Dutch merchants also started using wampum (beads made of special clam shells) as the first official currency of this country.

At the North Eastern shores of the United States, two species of sea rabbits were commonly found. They are Coney Island Sea Rabbit (Monafluffchus americanus) and Coney Island Tiger-striped Sea Rabbit (Monafluffchus konjinicus). Sadly, due to their over harvesting in the previous centuries, their conservation status became “Extinct in the Wild” (ET) in the Red List Endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Currently, these sea rabbits are only found at breeding centers at selected zoos and universities such as Coney Island Aquarium and Coney Island University in Brooklyn, New York. The one shown in this photograph was named "Seara" and has been cared by Dr. Takeshi Yamada at Coney Island University.

The sea rabbit is one of the families of the Pinniped order. Pinnipeds (from Latin penna = flat and pes/pedis = foot) are sea-mammals: they are homeothermic (i.e having high and regulated inner temperature), lung-breathing (i.e dependant on atmospheric oxygen) animals having come back to semi aquatic life. As soon as they arrive ashore, females are caught by the nearest adult male. Males can maintain harems of about 20 females on average. Several hours to several days after arriving ashore, pregnant females give birth to eight to ten pups with a dark brown fur. As soon as birth occurs, the mother’s special smell and calls help her pups bond specifically to her. The mother stays ashore with her pup for about one week during which the pup gains weight. During the first week spent with her newborn, the mother becomes receptive. She will be impregnated by the bull, which control the harem. Implantation of the embryo will occur 3 months later, in March-April. During the reproductive period, the best males copulate with several tens females. To do so, males have to stay ashore without feeding in order to keep their territory and their harem. In mid-January, when the last females have been fecundated, males leave at sea to feed. Some of them will come back later in March-April for the moult. The other ones will stay at sea and will come back on Coney Island only in next November. After fecundation, the mother goes at sea for her first meal. At sea, mothers feed on clams, crabs, shrimps, fish (herring, anchovy, Pollock, capelin etc.) and squids. When she is back, the mother recovers her pups at the beach she left them. Suckling occurs after auditive and olfactory recognition had occured. In March-April, the dark brown fur is totally replaced by an adult-like light brownish grey fur during the moult that lasts 1-2 months. This new fur is composed by 2 layers. Externally, the guard fur is composed by flat hairs that recover themselves when wet. By doing so, they make a water-proof barrier for the under fur. The underfur retains air when the seal is dry. Because of isolating properties of the air, the underfur is the insulating system of the fur. In March-April, the fur of adults is partially replaced. First reproduction occurs at 1-yr old in females. Males are physiologically matures at 1 year old but socially matures at +2 years old.

NOTE: The name of Coney Island is commonly thought to be derived from the Dutch Konijn Eylandt or Rabbit Island as apparently the 17th century European settlers noted many rabbits running amuck on the island.

www.takeshiyamada.weebly.com/performances.html

www.takeshiyamada.weebly.com/sea-rabbit-center.html

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For any questions, please email contact Takeshi Yamada, Art & Rogue Taxidermy, Museum of World Wonders, official website. www.takeshiyamada.weebly.com/

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www.takeshiyamada.weebly.com

For any questions, please contact Dr. Takeshi Yamada. His email address is posted in the chapter page (the last page or the first page).

(Updated April 7, 2015)

(further information and pictures you can get by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Mariahilferstraße

Mariahilferstraße, 6th, 7th, 14th and 15th, since 1897 (in the 6th and 7th district originally Kremser Sraße, then Bavarian highway, Laimgrubner main road, Mariahilfer main street, Fünfhauserstraße, Schönbrunnerstraße and Penzinger Poststraße, then Schönbrunner Straße), in memory of the old suburb name; Mariahilf was an independent municipality from 1660 to 1850, since then with Gumpendorf, Magdalenengrund, Windmühle and Laimgrube 6th District.

From

aeiou - the cultural information system of the bm: bwk

14,000 key words and 2000 pictures from history, geography, politics and business in Austria

www.aeiou.at

Mariahilferstraße, 1908 - Wien Museum

Mariahilferstraße, 1908

Picture taken from "August Stauda - A documentarian of old Vienna"

published by Christian Brandstätter - to Book Description

History

Pottery and wine

The first ones who demonstrably populated the area of ​​today's Mariahilferstraße (after the mammoth) were the Illyrians. They took advantage of the rich clay deposits for making simple vessels. The Celts planted on the sunny hills the first grape vines and understood the wine-making process very well. When the Romans occupied at the beginning of our Era Vienna for several centuries, they left behind many traces. The wine culture of the Celts they refined. On the hill of today's Mariahilferstraße run a Roman ridge trail, whose origins lay in the camp of Vindobona. After the rule of the Romans, the migration of peoples temporarily led many cultures here until after the expulsion of the Avars Bavarian colonists came from the West.

The peasant Middle Ages - From the vineyard to the village

Thanks to the loamy soil formed the winery, which has been pushed back only until the development of the suburbs, until the mid-17th Century the livelihood of the rural population. "Im Schöff" but also "Schöpf - scoop" and "Schiff - ship" (from "draw of") the area at the time was called. The erroneous use of a ship in the seal of the district is reminiscent of the old name, which was then replaced by the picture of grace "Mariahilf". The Weinberg (vineyard) law imposed at that time that the ground rent in the form of mash on the spot had to be paid. This was referred to as a "draw".

1495 the Mariahilfer wine was added to the wine disciplinary regulations for Herrenweine (racy, hearty, fruity, pithy wine with pleasant acidity) because of its special quality and achieved high prices.

1529 The first Turkish siege

Mariahilferstraße, already than an important route to the West, was repeatedly the scene of historical encounters. When the Turks besieged Vienna for the first time, was at the lower end of today Mariahilferstrasse, just outside the city walls of Vienna, a small settlement of houses and cottages, gardens and fields. Even the St. Theobald Monastery was there. This so-called "gap" was burned at the approach of the Turks, for them not to offer hiding places at the siege. Despite a prohibition, the area was rebuilt after departure of the Turks.

1558, a provision was adopted so that the glacis, a broad, unobstructed strip between the city wall and the outer settlements, should be left free. The Glacis existed until the demolition of the city walls in 1858. Here the ring road was later built.

1663 The new Post Road

With the new purpose of the Mariahilferstrasse as post road the first three roadside inn houses were built. At the same time the travel increased, since the carriages were finally more comfortable and the roads safer. Two well-known expressions date from this period. The "tip" and "kickbacks". In the old travel handbooks of that time we encounter them as guards beside the route, the travel and baggage tariff. The tip should the driver at the rest stop pay for the drink, while the bribe was calculated in proportion to the axle grease. Who was in a hurry, just paid a higher lubricant (Schmiergeld) or tip to motivate the coachman.

1683 The second Turkish siege

The second Turkish siege brought Mariahilferstraße the same fate. Meanwhile, a considerable settlement was formed, a real suburb, which, however, still had a lot of fields and brick pits. Again, the suburb along the Mariahilferstraße was razed to the ground, the population sought refuge behind the walls or in the Vienna Woods. The reconstruction progressed slowly since there was a lack of funds and manpower. Only at the beginning of the 18th Century took place a targeted reconstruction.

1686 Palais Esterhazy

On several "Brandstetten", by the second Turkish siege destroyed houses, the Hungarian aristocratic family Esterhazy had built herself a simple palace, which also had a passage on the Mariahilferstrasse. 1764 bought the innkeeper Paul Winkelmayr from Spittelberg the building, demolished it and built two new buildings that have been named in accordance with the Esterhazy "to the Hungarian crown."

17th Century to 19th Century. Fom the village to suburb

With the development of the settlements on the Mariahilferstraße from village to suburbs, changed not only the appearance but also the population. More and more agricultural land fell victim to the development, craftsmen and tradesmen settled there. There was an incredible variety of professions and trades, most of which were organized into guilds or crafts. Those cared for vocational training, quality and price of the goods, and in cases of unemployment, sickness and death.

The farms were replaced by churches and palaces, houses and shops. Mariahilf changed into a major industrial district, Mariahilferstrasse was an important trading center. Countless street traders sold the goods, which they carried either with them, or put in a street stall on display. The dealers made themselves noticeable by a significant Kaufruf (purchase call). So there was the ink man who went about with his bottles, the Wasserbauer (hydraulic engineering) who sold Danube water on his horse-drawn vehicle as industrial water, or the lavender woman. This lovely Viennese figures disappeared with the emergence of fixed premises and the improvement of urban transport.

Private carriages, horse-drawn carriages and buggies populated the streets, who used this route also for trips. At Mariahilferplatz Linientor (gate) was the main stand of the cheapest and most popular means of transport, the Zeiselwagen, which the Wiener used for their excursions into nature, which gradually became fashionable. In the 19th Century then yet arrived the Stellwagen (carriage) and bus traffic which had to accomplish the connection between Vienna and the suburbs. As a Viennese joke has it, suggests the Stellwagen that it has been so called because it did not come from the spot.

1719 - 1723 Royal and Imperial Court Stables

Emperor Charles VI. gave the order for the construction of the stables to Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. 1772 the building was extended by two houses on the Mariahilferstrasse. The size of the stables still shows, as it serves as the Museum Quarter - its former importance. The Mariahilferstraße since the building of Schönbrunn Palace by the Imperial court very strongly was frequented. Today in the historic buildings the Museum Quarter is housed.

The church and monastery of Maria Hülff

Coloured engraving by J. Ziegler, 1783

1730 Mariahilferkirche

1711 began the renovation works at the Mariahilferkirche, giving the church building today's appearance and importance as a baroque monument. The plans stem from Franziskus Jänkl, the foreman of Lukas von Hildebrandt. Originally stood on the site of the Mariahilferkirche in the medieval vineyard "In Schoeff" a cemetery with wooden chapel built by the Barnabites. Already in those days, the miraculous image Mariahilf was located therein. During the Ottoman siege the chapel was destroyed, the miraculous image could be saved behind the protective walls. After the provisional reconstruction the miraculous image in a triumphal procession was returned, accompanied by 30,000 Viennese.

1790 - 1836 Ferdinand Raimund

Although in the district Mariahilf many artists and historical figures of Vienna lived , it is noticeable that as a residence they rather shunned the Mariahilferstraße, because as early as in the 18th Century there was a very lively and loud bustle on the street. The most famous person who was born on the Mariahilferstrasse is the folk actor and dramatist Ferdinand Raimund. He came in the house No. 45, "To the Golden deer (Zum Goldenen Hirschen)", which still exists today, as son of a turner into the world. As confectioners apprentice, he also had to visit the theaters, where he was a so-called "Numero", who sold his wares to the visitors. This encounter with the theater was fateful. He took flight from his training masters and joined a traveling troupe as an actor. After his return to Vienna, he soon became the most popular comedian. In his plays all those figures appeared then bustling the streets of Vienna. His most famous role was that of the "ash man" in "Farmer as Millionaire", a genuine Viennese guy who brings the wood ash in Butte from the houses, and from the proceeds leading a modest existence.

1805 - 1809 French occupation

The two-time occupation of Vienna by the French hit the suburbs hard. But the buildings were not destroyed fortunately.

19th century Industrialization

Here, where a higher concentration of artisans had developed as in other districts, you could feel the competition of the factories particularly hard. A craftsman after another became factory worker, women and child labor was part of the day-to-day business. With the sharp rise of the population grew apartment misery and flourished bed lodgers and roomers business.

1826

The Mariahilferstraße is paved up to the present belt (Gürtel).

1848 years of the revolution

The Mariahilferstraße this year was in turmoil. At the outbreak of the revolution, the hatred of the people was directed against the Verzehrungssteuerämter (some kind of tax authority) at the lines that have been blamed for the rise of food prices, and against the machines in the factories that had made the small craftsmen out of work or dependent workers. In October, students, workers and citizens tore up paving stones and barricaded themselves in the Mariahilfer Linientor (the so-called Linienwall was the tax frontier) in the area of ​​today's belt.

1858 The Ring Road

The city walls fell and on the glacis arose the ring-road, the now 6th District more closely linking to the city center.

1862 Official naming

The Mariahilferstraße received its to the present day valid name, after it previously was bearing the following unofficial names: "Bavarian country road", "Mariahilfer Grund Straße", "Penzinger Street", "Laimgrube main street" and "Schönbrunner Linienstraße".

The turn of the century: development to commercial street

After the revolution of 1848, the industry displaced the dominant small business rapidly. At the same time the Mariahilferstraße developed into the first major shopping street of Vienna. The rising supply had to be passed on to the customer, and so more and more new shops sprang up. Around the turn of the century broke out a real building boom. The low suburban houses with Baroque and Biedermeier facade gave way to multi-storey houses with flashy and ostentatious facades in that historic style mixture, which was so characteristic of the late Ringstrasse period. From the former historic buildings almost nothing remained. The business portals were bigger and more pompous, the first department stores in the modern style were Gerngross and Herzmansky. Especially the clothing industry took root here.

1863 Herzmansky opened

On 3 March opened August Herzmansky a small general store in the Church Lane (Kirchengasse) 4. 1897 the great establishment in the pin alley (Stiftgasse) was opened, the largest textile company of the monarchy. August Herzmansky died a year before the opening, two nephews take over the business. In 1928, Mariahilferstraße 28 is additionally acquired. 1938, the then owner Max Delfiner had to flee, the company Rhonberg and Hämmerle took over the house. The building in Mariahilferstrasse 30 additionally was purchased. In the last days of the war in 1945 it fell victim to the flames, however. 1948, the company was returned to Max Delfiner, whose son sold in 1957 to the German Hertie group, a new building in Mariahilferstrasse 26 - 30 constructing. Other ownership changes followed.

1869 The Pferdetramway

The Pferdetramway made it first trip through the Mariahilferstraße to Neubaugasse.

Opened in 1879 Gerngroß

Mariahilferstraße about 1905

Alfred Gerngross, a merchant from Bavaria and co-worker August

Herzmanskys, founded on Mariahilferstrasse 48/corner Church alley (Kirchengasse) an own fabric store. He became the fiercest competitor of his former boss.

1901 The k.k. Imperial Furniture Collection

The k.k. Hofmobilien and material depot is established in Mariahilferstrasse 88. The collection quickly grew because each new ruler got new furniture. Today, it serves as a museum. Among other things, there is the office of Emperor Franz Joseph, the equipment of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico from Miramare Castle, the splendid table of Charles VI. and the furniture from the Oriental Cabinet of Crown Prince Rudolf.

1911 The House Stafa

On 18 August 1911, on the birthday of Emperor Franz Joseph, corner Mariahilferstraße/imperial road (Kaiserstraße) the "central palace" was opened. The construction by its architecture created a sensation. Nine large double figure-relief panels of Anton Hanak decorated it. In this building the "1st Vienna Commercial sample collective department store (Warenmuster-Kollektivkaufhaus)", a eight-storey circular building was located, which was to serve primarily the craft. The greatest adversity in the construction were underground springs. Two dug wells had to be built to pump out the water. 970 liters per minute, however, must be pumped out until today.

1945 bombing of Vienna

On 21 February 1945 bombs fell on the Mariahilferstrasse, many buildings were badly damaged. On 10th April Wiener looted the store Herzmansky. Ella Fasser, the owner of the café "Goethe" in Mariahilferstrasse, preserved the Monastery barracks (Stiftskaserne) from destruction, with the help other resistance fighters cutting the fire-conducting cords that had laid the retreating German troops. Meanwhile, she invited the officers to the cafe, and befuddled them with plenty of alcohol.

www.wien-vienna.at/blickpunkte.php?ID=582

Stitched Panorama

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ACOrigins020

CAMISETAS IMPORTDAS COMO ORIGINAIS DIVERSAS MARCAS

Cropredy has ancient origins, a chapel in the church is dedicated to St Fremund, an anglo-saxon saint thought to be the son of King Offa. It's name combines the Old English croppe or hill and ridig, a small stream. The village is only a few miles from Banbury, in hilly country along the banks of the River Cherwell. Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries Cropredy belonged the Bishop of Lincoln. More recently Brasenose College, Oxford, has become a significant landlord giving it's name to the local pub.

Dramatic changes to centuries of agrarian life were heralded by the excavation of the Oxford canal which runs alongside the Cherwell south-east of the church. This busy waterway was superseded by the Great Western railway, the village even had it's own station until 1956.

Unusually Cropredy retains the ringing of the curfew bell, in Medieval times this was a signal to return home and 'cover their fires'. Roger Lupton local priest between 1487 and 1528 was so lost in dense fog that he could only find his way from nearby Chacombe by the ringing of Cropredy's bells. He founded a fund in gratitude which paid for the daily winding of the clock and tolling the bell morning, noon and night. The bell is still rung Tuesday and Thursday nights for five minutes after eight O'clock.

The village is best known for the Civil War 'Battle of Cropredy Bridge'. A rare Royalist victory at a time when the Parliamentary forces were in the ascendancy. In June 1644 the King slipped out of Oxford to avoid two Roundhead armies which were rapidly approaching. At this point the Earl of Essex chose to lead his army south and relieve the siege of Lyme Regis leaving Sir William Waller to pursue the King with half of the men. Waller shadowed the Royal army to Worcester only for the King to double back towards Banbury where the Parliamentary commander saw an opportunity to split the Royal forces which were strung out along the Daventry road. Waller's artillery crossed Cropredy bridge but were too far ahead of the infantry and were overrun. Fierce fighting followed but neither side achieved a significant advantage and a chance of capturing the King was lost. As children we were told stories of a phantom drummer boy.

Cropredy's most prominent claim to fame is their music festival founded when Fairport Convention played the village fete in 1976. Cropredy Music Festival grew from these modest beginnings and now attracts over 20,000 music fans every year.

St. Mary the Virgin is an impressive building constructed from the local rust-coloured ironstone. While part of the wall of the south aisle has been dated to c1050 the present church begins in the 13th century with significant 14th and 15th century additions. The south wall has two tomb recesses thought to be built for Simon de Cropredy and his son c1200. The church has an interesting 13th century parish chest and the chapel dedicated to the anglo-saxon saint Fremund has two 15th century screens, one of which has the initials AD which may stand for Alice Danvers. The nave arcading, tower and choir arches are Perpendicular in style with no capitals and continuous moulding from ground level. The tower is early 15th century with the belfry and parapets added 80 years later, There are eight bells, six from the late 17th century, two added in 2007 called Fairport and Villager. Fragments of a Doom survive above the chancel arch. The church has a 17th century pulpit and a rare pre-reformation eagle lectern which is said to have been hidden in the river before the Battle of Cropredy where it lost one of it's lion feet. The beak has a slot for collecting 'Peter's Pence'. There is a beautiful 15th century head of the Virgin Mary in stained glass which was found in the churchyard. There are two fonts, one Norman and one Victorian. In the tower is a magnificent clock by John Moore of Clerkenwell dated 1831.

Cropredy is just off the Daventry road a few miles from Banbury about an hour from Stratford-upon-Avon.

www.youtube.com/user/Cotswoldchurches

www.bwthornton.co.uk

Origin French Thai Somerville NJ

View On Black

A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety. ~Ansel Adams

The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box. ~Henri Cartier Bresson

I hope you enjoy my attempt at capturing the essence of our passion, somewhat personified. I appreciate the irony in my attempt, yet I understand the duplicity of practising my passion whilst paying homage.

What is photography? I would appreciate your views in the comments I hope will follow.

To me it is exactly this - the enjoyment felt capturing something beautiful.

Photography is beautiful.

Russ.

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